A highly-contagious disease has shut European borders with one country suggesting a "biological attack" is behind the outbreak. Thousands of cattle have been slaughtered following the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Hungary for over 50 years.

Austria and Slovakia have closed dozens of border crossings following the outbreak, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health. A Hungarian spokesperson said the disease, which was first detected on a cattle farm near the northwest border, may have been "artificially engineered". He added they could not rule out that the virus was the result of a biological attack. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said: "At this stage, we can say that it cannot be ruled out that the virus was not of natural origin, we may be dealing with an artificially engineered virus." However, he did not give information on who might be responsible.

Animal authorities have inspected nearly 1,000 farms across Hungary and detected positive foot-and-mouth disease results on four sites.

Gulyas claimed that suspicion was based on verbal information received from a foreign laboratory, and the findings have not yet been fully proven.

Hungary had a total cattle stock of 861,000 last December which equated to 1.2% of the European Union's total. However, thousands have now been culled as the landlocked country tries to contain the outbreak.

Although foot-and-mouth disease poses no danger to humans, it can quickly spread among animals, causing fever and mouth blisters for cattle, sheep and goats.

As reported by the Independent, Paul Meixner, an Austrian-Hungarian dual citizen who owns one of the affected farms in Hungary, said his business has taken a 1.5 billion forint ($4.09 million) loss after culling 3,000 cattle and other livestock.

He said: "Everyone was just anding there, crying and saying that this cannot be true, that this was impossible." But he has vowed to rebuild.

"In two weeks, we will start harvesting and storing the hay. We need the fodder for next year."