Dutch Ministers of Health and Agriculture Ab Klink and Gerda Verburg hope to relax measures to combat Q-fever as of 1 June.

The final decision will be taken in May, when the lambing season is over.

One important condition for the decision will be that dairy goats and sheep are vaccinated twice.

The relaxation of measures means that a ban on transport and breeding will be lifted at infected farms.

As a result, 77 farms which have had to cull their livestock will be allowed to buy new animals.

Strict measures to prevent further spread of the Q-fever were introduced in December following the largest ever outbreak of the disease. Critics accused to the government of putting agriculture before human health and acting too late. The bacteria is often released into the air during lambing. As a precaution 45,000 pregnant goats and sheep were culled.

Since January three people have died of Q-fever and 247 are officially infected, 52 have become ill since the beginning of the year. Last year 2000 people were infected with the disease. Most of them in the southern province of Brabant.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide