- LONDON (Reuters) - A top
scientific adviser to the British government said on Thursday the country's
foot-and-mouth epidemic was out of control and could take a further five
months to eliminate.
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- While world attention remained focused on the British
outbreak, the Netherlands became the second mainland European state to
fall victim to the highly contagious and financially costly disease. France
was the first.
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- The Netherlands, which found foot-and-mouth on three
farms on Wednesday, plans to vaccinate animals as part of efforts to prevent
the disease spreading -- a measure Britain and other countries have rejected
on grounds of cost and that it would be only short-term.
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- In Britain, 40 new infected sites were found on Wednesday,
bringing the total to 435 and showing the country was far from controlling
the month-long epidemic that has paralyzed much of its countryside, from
farming to the lucrative tourism industry.
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- ``I think everybody is in agreement -- the government,
the farming community and the independent scientific advice -- that this
epidemic is not under control at the current point of time,'' said Professor
Roy Anderson, an epidemiologist called in by the Agriculture Ministry to
monitor the crisis.
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- The scale of the disaster was underscored by figures
showing that more than 270,000 animals had been slaughtered because they
were infected or as a precaution, and a further 130,000 were waiting to
be killed.
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- Nearly 80,000 carcasses are piled up awaiting disposal,
and giant pyres burn round the clock in infected areas. The disease afflicts
cloven-hoofed livestock such as pigs, sheep and cattle by causing mouth
and foot blisters and severe weight loss.
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- Epidemic Seen Raging For Months
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- Anderson told BBC television the epidemic was likely
to rage on for months -- possibly until August.
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- If the number of cases continues to increase at a rate
of two an hour, the epidemic will peak early in May -- tipped as Prime
Minister Tony Blair favored time for a general election.
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- Anderson said it was likely to be the worst foot-and-mouth
epidemic the country had seen, beating a major outbreak in 1967. ``Although
the 1967 epidemic was very serious and resulted perhaps in 2,000 cases,
this one is likely to be worse'' he said.
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- Anderson attributed this to changes in farming practices,
including larger herds and the increased movement of livestock.
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- The Dutch government reacted to its outbreak with an
export ban on all meat, meat products and dairy products. It also placed
a three-day ban on feed and milk transportation across the country, extending
an earlier six mile limit.
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- It plans to cull 18,000 animals within a week to contain
the outbreak, and will inoculate those animals that cannot be killed immediately
to prevent the disease from spreading.
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- The ban on livestock movements forced the cancellation
of a top equestrian tournament on Thursday at Den Bosch, close to an area
with suspected cases of the disease, and extra customs controls were imposed
at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
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- Pork Prices Rise Sharply
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- News of the Dutch outbreak sent pork prices sharply higher
on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.
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- Traders said the spread of the disease to a second country
in continental Europe suggested that it might reach Denmark, one of the
world's largest pork exporters.
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- An outbreak there would force Denmark to halt meat shipments,
leaving most of the world market to the United States and Canada, market
analysts said.
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- Prices of feed ingredients such as corn and soymeal tumbled
at the Chicago Board of Trade as the widening slaughter of livestock herds
threatened to shrink demand.
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- The U.S. Agriculture Department estimated in a report
that beef consumption in the European Union would plummet by 15 percent
this year as consumers reacted to outbreaks of both BSE (mad cow disease)
and foot-and-mouth.
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- A U.N. expert expressed confidence that the Dutch could
contain foot-and-mouth. ``I doubt it,'' Samuel Jutzi of the Food and Agriculture
Organization told Reuters in Rome when asked if the disease would spread
through Europe.
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- Germany, which has no confirmed cases, imposed restrictions
on maneuvers by American, British and French troops based in the country
as well as by its own army.
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- Blair insisted on Wednesday that local elections scheduled
for May 3 should go ahead, arguing that to delay them because of the foot-and-mouth
epidemic would send the wrong signals abroad, particularly for the tourist
industry.
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- Blair is widely expected to call a parliamentary election
for the same day, a year before the end of his term in office.
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- He remained defiant in the face of calls from opposition
Conservatives, rural community leaders and some Labor Party members who
say it would be insensitive to hold elections while the disease is rampant
in the countryside.
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- ``If we were to send out the message that in effect the
democratic process had to go into suspension, that Britain was in a state
of quarantine, that we were in some way closed for business, I worry about
the effect that would have on the tourist business,'' Blair told parliament
on Wednesday.
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- After telling people to stay away from rural areas to
prevent the spread of the disease, his ministers now want to reverse the
impression that the countryside is one big ``no-go'' area. The virus poses
little or no risk to humans but can be transmitted through the air, on
clothes and on vehicle tires.
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