UK steps up foot-and-mouth cull, crisis mounts
Copyright 2001, Reuters
March 25, 2001
British farmers round up sheep on a farm in Michaelchurch Escley, Herefordshire, after the government warned that the foot-and-mouth epidemic is spreading at an alarming rate. The number of infected sites across the country could rise 10-fold and exceed 4,000 by June.
Britain stepped up measures on Sunday to tackle a virulent foot-and-mouth outbreak as the number of infected sites rose toward 600.
The Dutch government announced the country's fifth confirmed case of the livestock disease. France has two and Ireland one.
The British Agriculture Ministry confirmed 18 new infected sites, bringing the total in the United Kingdom to 573. The crisis has closed much of the countryside, crippled the farming community and brought the tourism industry to its knees.
Agriculture Ministry officials said they were worried that three of the new sites were well away from areas with previously detected outbreaks.
Junior agriculture minister Baroness Hayman told reporters that the time between disease identification and slaughter had been slashed but more needed to be done in the worst-hit area — Cumbria, in northern England.A disused airbase there was approved for the slaughter and burial of about 200,000 sheep to clear a backlog of carcasses.
A new sense of urgency in fighting the highly contagious disease has gripped British leaders since scientific advisers said the epidemic could spread with dramatic speed and half the country's livestock might have to be slaughtered.
The government has set up a high-level crisis management committee which will meet daily. The Cobra committee, assembled only at times of national emergency, will be chaired by Agriculture Minister Nick Brown.
Cobra last met during Britain's fuel crisis in September 2000, when petrol pumps ran dry because of refinery blockades by fuel price protesters.
"I believe now we are dealing with it properly, getting the kind of equipment and resources that are necessary for it," Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said.
"With the Prime Minister certainly in charge of it we are making the right decisions."
The government's chief scientist warned that "in the worst-case scenario, out of control means that we might even lose 50 percent of the livestock of Great Britain."
Britain has destroyed some 300,000 animals since the outbreak began just over a month ago. Ireland, which like Britain has called in the army to help contain the crisis, is also culling thousands of animals.
The Dutch outbreak has been traced to animals that traveled from Ireland through Mayenne in northwestern France, where the first continental case of the disease was found.
"They still have a link to Mayenne. It means that we can still trace back every case to France," ministry spokesman Bruno Bruggink said.
In Paris, the Agriculture Ministry blamed the second French case on "fraudulent practices," saying the animals on a farm in Seine-et-Marne had been in contact with British sheep illegally transported from Mayenne.
The ministry said it was banning the export of all French meat, dairy and animal produce, including leather, that had not been specially treated against the disease.
At the close of a European Union summit in Stockholm, a leaders' communique said they were confident "... that these measures will contain and ultimately eradicate foot-and-mouth disease and BSE."
The communique demonstrated that German-led calls for more environmentally friendly farming methods were now broadly accepted by all EU leaders.
With government sources admitting they had underestimated the scale of the outbreak, Blair's opponents urged him to delay plans for a national election.
Blair has long penciled in May 3 for a national poll, allowing him to cash in on a gaping opinion poll lead and an economy boasting the lowest unemployment in a generation.
"How can you actually get a grip on a national crisis when you are in the middle of fighting elections?" Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram asked on BBC Television.
"Stop playing politics ... and begin to understand there is a real crisis out there in the country," he demanded of Blair.
But Prescott and Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid, one of Blair's most trusted ministers, were adamant there were no plans yet to change election timing.
Reid said there were no plans to delay local elections, set in law for May 3. If they go ahead, there would be little reason to stop a parallel national poll.
"The tourist industry ... would be devastated if we sent a signal to the rest of the world that said 'Britain is effectively closed'," Reid told Sky Television.