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2007-8-30 13:41:59 |
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Sunday August 5, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) -- An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was discovered on a farm in Guildford, Surrey, south of England, leading the British authorities to burn the bodies of 60 cattle on Saturday to contain spread of the disease. The UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reported Sunday that the culled cattle included 38 infected cattle and the cattle on the other two sites owned by the farm. The cattle on additional two sites showed no signs of foot-and-mouth infection, but were slaughtered because they were within the Surveillance Zone. According to the Defra, an additional 3 km radius protection zone and 10 km radius surveillance zone have been designated around the second part of the farm. Foot-and-mouth disease, which primarily affects cow, sheep, and pigs, hit the British livestock industry in 2001, causing loss of more than four million animals or $16 billion in agriculture businesses. The disease is caused by a virus that grows inside the digestive tracts including the stomachs and intestines of livestock, causing painful blisters in the mouth and blistering in the hooves. Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious among cattle, buffalo, sheep, pigs and can seriously reduce milk and meat production. Nevertheless, it is rarely a threat to humans. The foot-and-mouth virus is currently present in 60 countries around the world, in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to an early report by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The European Commission acknowledged the risk of foot-and-mouth disease to the cattle industry early in 2005 and has invested multi-million dollars to prevent the entry of the disease from infected areas outside Europe. The current outbreak in the UK may be a surprise to the Commission. British authorities are investigating the source of the current outbreak of foot-and-mouth. Fears rose that the virus might have come from a government laboratory. According to news reports, the virus found in infected cattle happens to be the same one being studied at the government's Institute for Animal Health laboratory at Pirbright. Experts are still investigating the source of the foot-and-mouth disease. For more information about foot-and-mouth disease and the current outbreak, visit Defra at http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/about/qanda-0807.htm |
