EU battles foot-and-mouth spread

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European ministers are meeting to discuss imposing wider restrictions on animal trading to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

They will discuss on Tuesday whether to close all national borders to imports and exports of livestock at threat as part of increased efforts to keep the virus at bay.

Cases of foot-and-mouth disease continue to rise in Britain but there have been no confirmed cases in the rest of Europe despite widespread testing and culling of potentially infected animals.

In Asia, three pigs found in Taiwan with symptoms of the disease have been destroyed while Japan and South Korea are restricting meat imports from European countries.

AUDIO CNN's Walter Rodgers: A major disaster for British Farmers. 420K/39 .sec. AIFF or WAV sound CNN's Peter Humi: Livestock markets banned in France 350K/32 .sec. AIFF or WAV sound David Byrne EU Food Safety Commissioner: prevention measures are available 490K/45 .sec. AIFF or WAV sound

Italian Agriculture Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio will urge ministers at the veterinary committee meeting to accept the closure of all national borders to the movement of livestock.

Foot-and-mouth disease, which does not harm humans, causes blisters on the hooves and mouths of sheep, pigs, cattle and goats, undermining their economic value.

Europe's veterinary experts will also consider authorising the use of vaccines to counter the spread of the disease but the policy is still seen as a last resort and is likely to be rejected for the time being as too drastic and too costly a response to the current outbreak.

Any vaccination plan would require approval from the veterinary experts and then the formal go-ahead from EU agriculture ministers.

France has already banned exports, and after discovering traces of the disease in slaughtered imported British sheep it suspended the transport of all cloven-hoofed animals -- except to slaughterhouses -- for the next two weeks.

French Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany said the disease "could be a new tragedy for French farmers."

Nine of the country's farms are under quarantine and the preventive slaughter of 50,000 sheep has been ordered, including five sheep in Gard, southern France, which are suspected of having had the disease.

But the two cattle that had come into contact with slaughtered British sheep have tested negative, the agriculture ministry has said.

Continent free -- so far

Other tests on livestock in Belgium and Denmark proved negative on Monday -- making the continent free so far from any confirmed cases.

But the Belgian Government imposed a three-day ban on all transport of farm animals, banned weekend horse races throughout the country and ordered the destruction of all animals in transit.

German officials in the state of Brandenburg said they had sealed off a pig farm after noting suspicious symptoms in one of the animals.

In the UK, where 76 cases have been confirmed and 45,000 animals have been culled, the National Farmers' Union spoke of a possible "nightmare scenario."

British supermarkets reported soaring meat sales, with shoppers stockpiling supplies.

In an effort to avert shortages, the government announced measures that will allow farm animals from areas of the country not infected by foot-and-mouth to be taken directly to slaughterhouses under stringent conditions.

Bulgaria announced on Monday it had banned all imports of cloven-hoofed animals, related products and fodder from France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland as a precaution.

But Sweden, which currently chairs the presidency of the EU, dismissed the need to raise the foot-and-mouth crisis at an EU summit in late March.

Swedish Prime Minister President Goran Persson said the outbreak was primarily an issue for farm ministers and that Sweden did not plan to put the farming industry's latest plight on the agenda at the March 23 EU summit in Stockholm.

Asian states moved on Monday to restrict the imports of European meat.

Japan announced it had imposed a temporary ban on imports of cloven-hoofed animals and related products from Belgium, France and Denmark.

While in South Korea, officials added possibly suspect meat from France, Germany and Denmark to a quarantine list already set up against imports of cloven-hoofed animal products from Belgium.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Virus sparks call to shut borders
March 5, 2001
France, Belgium suspect foot-and-mouth
March 3, 2001
Europe braced for foot-and-mouth
March 3, 2001
UK outbreak raises questions
March 2, 2001
Europe steps up disease controls
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Foot-and-mouth crisis spreads
February 28, 2001

UK Ministry of Agriculture: Foot-and-mouth
Belgian Ministry of Agriculture
French Ministry of Agriculture
Danish Ministry of Agriculture (in Danish)
The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease
European Union: Agriculture policies

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