U.K. Bans Exports After Disease Outbreak

Prime Minister Vows To Work "Night And Day" To Slow Spread Of Foot-And-Mouth

(CBS/AP)  Britain banned exports of livestock, meat and milk Saturday after an outbreak of highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease and halted the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs nationwide in a bid to control spread of the virus.

At least 60 cattle have been diagnosed with the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, reports CBS News correspondent Larry Miller.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed to work "night and day" to avoid a repeat of a 2001 epidemic when 7 million cattle were culled and the farming industry was devastated.

"Our first priority has been to act quickly and decisively," said Brown, who returned to London from a summer holiday to deal with the outbreak. He chaired a meeting of the government's crisis committee, COBRA, on Saturday.

"I can assure people ... we are doing everything in our power to look at the scientific evidence and to get to the bottom of what has happened and then to eradicate this disease," he said.

The movement of all cloven-hooved animals, including cattle and pigs, was banned nationwide Saturday after discovery of the disease on a farm near Wanborough, about 30 miles southwest of London. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or DEFRA, also said Britain had banned the export of all animals with cloven hooves. The ban covers live animals, carcasses, meat and milk.

DEFRA did not immediately say how many animals at the farm were infected, but said all its livestock would be slaughtered and incinerated. The cull took place Saturday.

Veterinary workers in protective white coveralls rounded up cattle and put them into pens. Vehicles entering and leaving the farm were sprayed with disinfectant.

Authorities imposed a two-mile radius protection zone and a surveillance zone of six miles around the farm. The road leading to a nearby butcher's shop was also sealed off.

The government's chief veterinarian, Debby Reynolds, said it was too soon to guess how the disease got to Britain — whether through the illegal movement of animals, on the wind or by accidental contamination — and how far it might spread.

The government-funded Institute for Animal Health's Pirbright Laboratory, which is researching the disease, is within the surveillance zone and about four miles from the site of the affected farm. Authorities have asked the lab to review its biosecurity procedures, Reynolds told a news conference.

"It is important not to rule out any possible source," she said. No one at the laboratory was immediately available for comment.

DEFRA discovered Saturday that the strain of foot-and-mouth disease found on the farm was identical to one used at the nearby laboratory.

The strain of the disease detected in the outbreak is not one recently found in animals, DEFRA said in a statement.

The government had said earlier the European Union would bar livestock imports from Britain in response to the outbreak, and Japan announced it was banning imports of British pork. British beef has been banned in Japan since the 1990s as a result of mad cow disease.

In the Netherlands, which was also affected in 2001, the government banned the transport of all livestock with cloven hooves in the country as a precaution. Authorities in Italy and Ireland urged herds in their countries be checked.

The case is the first in Britain since 2001, when the carcasses of many of the 7 million culled cattle were burned on huge pyres that dotted the country. The farming industry was devastated, huge swaths of the countryside were closed and rural tourism was badly hit.

Officials stressed on Saturday that there was no plan to burn the carcasses on pyres — a sight that had horrified many Britons.

Brown said officials were "doing everything in our power to avoid a repeat" of the scenes of six years ago.

Scientists were carrying out tests to determine the strain of the disease, and whether vaccination would be possible to halt its spread. Police patrolled rural areas to ensure farmers did not move their animals.

Reynolds encouraged farmers to look for signs of illness in their livestock, and said there had been a "small number" of reports from other farms. None had so far proved to be foot-and-mouth.

The government was criticized for not using vaccines in 2001. A report on the epidemic by a senior scientific body, the Royal Society, concluded that vaccination should be a major tool of first resort in the event of future outbreaks.

Farmers near the infected site were worried, but hopeful that quick action would contain the disease.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed but there is really nothing we can do about it except wait," said Michael More-Molyneux, whose farm is about five miles from the infected site.

The 2001 outbreak started with a pig herd in northern England and spread to cows and sheep. It eventually infected more than 2,000 farms.

British taxpayers paid more than $2 billion for compensation, disinfecting, veterinarians and the slaughter. The total cost to the country was estimated at $16 billion.

It was almost a year before Britain was declared free of the disease, and months more before British exports were allowed to resume.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by newster1 at 06:55 PM : Aug 04, 2007


If you are vegan and breast feed your baby, it is at risk of dying of malnutrition. Man was designed to eat meat and vegetables

"More importantly, perhaps we should get over being preachy about this sort of thing, and realize that we have the eyes in the front of our head because we are designed to eat animal proteins to at least some extent over our life time."
http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/05/death-by-veganism.html

[nothappyatall]

At least 60 cattle have been diagnosed with the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease"

This is great, maybe more of this will FINALLY cease the barbaric raising and slaughtering of animals for the bar-b-cue. When showing obvious cruelty and barbaric daily practices garners only a "oh but steak is SOOOO good" reaction, maybe the filth and diseases connected to meat and it's contamination with CHIT will get the result!

[prairiefox1]

IN OTHER WORDS FOOT IN MOUTH IS NOT RELATED TO HOOF AND MOUTH DISEASE WHICH IS ANTHRAX !
IS THIS CORRECT?

[feelfree1]

Re: "Foot-And-Mouth Disease Outbreak In U.K."

Maybe this helps to explain the actions of war criminal Tony Blair?

[radiob-2009]

Somehow I just new that either Bush or the Muslims were to blame for this. Where is that ladder?

[drivelphobe]

This comes from drinking water from the Muslim footbaths. Another reason we don't need these in America, particualrly at taxpayers' expense. I want the government to build bedets in all public restrooms. Maybe they can clean their feet on these, and leave the rest of us to clean our ani.

[j-whitman]

Everyone in the White House has Foot & Mouth Disease --- What's the problem U.K.?? Want to trade some idiots for some sick cows ?? --- Our gain & your loss.... I Would Make America Safer

[macdoodle1]

Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by an Aphthovirus of the viral family Picornaviridae. ...After assembly, the host cell lyses (bursts) and releases the new viruses.
Humans can be infected with foot-and-mouth disease through contact with infected animals, but this is extremely rare. Because the virus that causes FMD is sensitive to stomach acid, it cannot spread to humans via consumption of infected meat. In the UK, the last confirmed human case occurred in 1967, and only a few other cases have been recorded in countries of continental Europe, Africa, and South America. Symptoms of FMD in humans include malaise, fever, vomiting, red ulcerative lesions (surface-eroding damaged spots) of the oral tissues, and sometimes vesicular lesions (small blisters) of the skin.
There is another viral disease with similar symptoms, commonly referred to as %u201Chand, foot, and mouth disease,%u201D that occurs more frequently in humans, especially in young children; this disease is caused by a different virus of the family Picornaviridae, namely, an Enterovirus called Coxsackie A virus.
Because FMD rarely infects humans but spreads rapidly among animals, it is a much greater threat to the agriculture industry than to human health.

[prairiefox1]

FOOT IN MOUTH WILL CAUSE A DISEASE ,,,,
KNOWN AS DEATH BY "TOE JAM"!

[prairiefox1]

GODOFREDO29:

TELL ME ABOUT FOOT IN MOUTH DISEASE !

IT CANNOT BE WORSE THAN HOOF AND MOUTH DISEASE!