Brown to tackle foot and mouth emergency

LONDON, Saturday (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown was to rush back from holiday today to head up Britain's response to a new foot and mouth outbreak amid fears of another epidemic devastating the countryside. Brown was returning to London to chair a meeting of the government's COBRA emergency cabinet after the highly infectious disease was confirmed Friday on a farm near the capital.

A national ban on moving sheep, cattle and pigs immediately swung into action in an attempt to contain the virus, which may already have spread. The disease passes very easily among ruminants but is only very rarely contracted by humans. The emergency recalled the last foot and mouth epidemic, in 2001, which dealt a hammer blow to rural Britain and its beleaguered agriculture industry.

Between 6.5 to 10 million animals were destroyed, the tourism industry was gutted, the army called in and a general election postponed. Brown was enjoying the first day of his holiday in Dorset, south-west England, when the outbreak was confirmed.“Our top priority is to prevent the spread of this disease in order to protect farmers' stock,” said a spokeswoman for his Downing Street office.

“The plans are tested and well-established.”Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, in Italy, was also due to abandon his holiday and return to London. The outbreak was detected on a farm near Guildford, south-west of London, which had raised the alarm Thursday. All cattle on the farm were to be culled. A spokesman at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced Friday the country's chief veterinarian Debby Reynolds “has confirmed foot and mouth disease” following laboratory tests.

The situation prompted a hastily convened meeting of COBRA, called in times of national crisis, which Brown took part in by telephone from Dorset. A three-kilometre protection zone and a 10-kilometre surveillance zone was imposed around the affected farm.“Nationally no animal movements are allowed except under licence,” the Defra spokesman added.

“Controls are in place on movement of animal carcasses, animal gatherings, shearing and dipping are restricted, and all farms must increase levels of biosecurity. “In both the protection and surveillance zones, there will be requirements for increased levels of biosecurity on farms, movement controls, controls on transportation of dung/manure and treatment of animal products to ensure destruction of the foot and mouth disease virus.”Reynolds said it was too early to determine how serious the outbreak was as she described Friday's COBRA meeting.

“We looked at the situation, we looked at the immediate response and we looked at how that would potentially emerge over coming days and weeks and we noted that both the latter aspects are extremely uncertain.”The 2001 outbreak dealt a blow to Britain's economy, costing it an estimated eight billion pounds (16.3 billion dollars, 11.9 billion euros). Then, 2,000 cases of the disease were detected on farms throughout the country. Public rights of way across land were closed, causing a huge loss in revenue for the tourism industry as well as for agriculture.

From Australia to Canada and across Europe, authorities laid out disinfectant mats to stop foot-and-mouth disease, while some went even further to protect zoos and domestic livestock. Tim Bonner, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said the disease could already be widespread.

“We hope and pray that the lessons from last time have been learned. The handling of the crisis in 2001 was an unmitigated disaster,” he told Sky News television. “Tourism is the biggest industry in the countryside and right now we are at the height of the season.

“If the countryside is closed down like in 2001, this could be a disaster for thousands of rural businesses.”Peter Kendall, the president of the National Farmers Union, said the NFU would work closely with the government to get information out to farmers.
“The livestock sector -- beef and sheep -- are still struggling very badly. This will be a major disappointment to the industry if it was a large

outbreak,” he told BBC television. Foot-and-mouth disease owes its name to the fact that the lesions it causes are found on the inside of the mouth and on the hoofs of animals. It is often spread on clothing, particularly shoes, but also by vehicles and agricultural tools, and there are rare examples of it having been wind-borne.