No sign of foot-and-mouth disease from N.C. hogs

RALEIGH, North Carolina (CNN) -- Tests on more tissue samples from dead hogs in North Carolina showed no sign of foot-and-mouth disease, federal officials said Saturday.

North Carolina agriculture officials sent samples to a Department of Agriculture lab in New York as a precaution after the pigs showed possible signs of foot-and-mouth disease, the department said.

The animals were killed at a slaughtering plant in Robersonville, east of Rocky Mount in northeastern North Carolina.

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No case of foot-and-mouth has occurred in the United States since 1929. The U.S. government is taking steps to prevent an outbreak.

"We have cut off the import of any animals from foot-and-mouth disease countries," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told CNN.

North Carolina has been urging animal handlers to be aggressive in reporting any signs of possible symptoms of the disease.

Symptoms include fever and blister-like lesions followed by erosions on the tongue and lips, in the mouth and between the hooves. The disease does not affect humans, but it can spread quickly among animals.

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Europe has prompted British authorities to earmark and almost 700,000 animals for slaughter after authorities there identified about 800 cases of the disease. Dutch authorities are prepared to kill up to 100,000 more to contain the epidemic after 10 cases were confirmed this week.

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North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
United States Department of Agriculture

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