Foot and mouth crisis grips Britain

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, FEB. 22. The export of all British meat and dairy products has been banned following an outbreak of the highly contagious and virulent foot- and-mouth disease among the cattle creating panic in the farming community which is still recovering from the effect of the mad cow disease.

The ban is estimated to cost farmers and dairy producers one million pounds a day in addition to the loss of hundreds of heads of cattle which would need to be slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease. The disease is so infectious that it can be spread through wind, and in the past two days vast stretches of farms in different areas have been declared ``exclusion zones''. The Government is treating it as a national disaster which has brought back memories of the Sixties when hundreds and thousands of cattle had to be destroyed turning the British rural landscape into a huge funeral pyre.

``Potentially it is a very serious situation,'' the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nick Brown said promising to act ``swiftly, firmly and comprehensively to get on top of this outbreak.'' The large- scale destruction of infected cattle appeared imminent and there were suggestions that the Government pay full compensation to the farmers. ``The outbreak has potentially catastrophic implications for the whole of the British livestock industry and the priority now is to contain it,'' the president of the National Farmers' Union, Mr. Ben Gill said.

The source of the infection, first discovered in a farm in Essex on Monday, is not known but one theory is that it may have come with cattle brought into Britain from outside in breach of the very strict European hygiene regime. There is said to be considerable illegal trade which does not always conform to hygiene standards. ``Something illegal has happened to bring this into the country,'' Mr. Brown said. The Government's chief vet said he had no idea of the origin of the infection but indicated that it was a pan-Asiatic strain which develops within 48 hours of infection. ``It can spread many miles by air to other countries, by touch or frequently by lorry which has carried other infected animals,'' he warned.

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