Cherished traditions, commerce thwarted by foot-mouth fears

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/03/MN

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A PALL OVER BRITAIN

Cherished traditions, commerce thwarted by foot-mouth fears

Chronicle News Services

Saturday, March 3, 2001

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

URL:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/03/MN

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Ireland has called off Dublin's annual St. 's Day parade, and

Scotland has quarantined Dolly, the famed cloned sheep, as European health

authorities stepped up efforts to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth

disease among farm animals in Britain.

Sporting events have been postponed. Thousands of miles of footpaths and

horse trails are closed, vast forests are sealed off, mountains are barred

to hikers, horse races have been canceled and great country houses locked

shut.

As four new cases of foot-and-mouth were reported -- bringing the total

across Britain and Northern Ireland to 40 -- hotels, sports centers, zoos

and pubs prepared for empty tills after millions of people were told to stay

at home.

Every part of Britain, including Scotland and Northern Ireland, is infected

with the debilitating disease, which causes fever, ulcerated tissues, weight

loss and reduced milk output in animals. The disease sickens only

cloven-hoofed creatures but can be spread by anything that moves -- people,

cars, clothes, water, even wind. Even milkmen and letter carriers are banned

from farms.

The Irish government, desperate to keep out the virus, set up roadblocks at

border points in recent days, disinfecting every vehicle that passed and

seizing food carried by individuals.

The disease was first detected 11 days ago in a British slaughterhouse, and

so far has been found at about three dozen sheep, pig and beef cattle farms

in the British Isles. In response, veterinary officials have ordered the

slaughter of about 37,000 animals.

The British government said yesterday that a week of restrictions on the

movement of livestock was paying off, and it planned to allow some healthy

animals to be slaughtered for meat.

STRINGENT MEASURES AT AIRPORTS

At airports and other ports of entry across Europe, passengers arriving from

Britain are forced to walk through shallow tubs or across mats of

disinfectant to kill any virus that could be clinging to their shoes. French

airports are treating the remains of meals from British flights like poison,

isolating the trays and incinerating them before they get to the terminal.

The intense scrutiny has even reached across the Atlantic. U.S. government

inspectors have stepped up their scrutiny of travelers arriving from Britain

in an effort to prevent foot-and-mouth disease -- sometimes called

hoof-and-mouth in the United States -- from reaching America.

The Agriculture Department issued an alert to its airport inspectors Feb.

21, after the British outbreak started, and also banned the import of any

British meat products.

" We're working very closely with our European counterparts to understand the

issue in Europe, and we're taking the appropriate steps to keep our country

free of foot-and-mouth disease, " USDA spokesman Herglotz said

yesterday.

Nothing symbolized the ubiquitous tenacity of the disease more than the

decision in Scotland to quarantine Dolly, the first cloned mammal and

undoubtedly the world's most famous sheep.

Harry , a member of the team that cloned Dolly at Edinburgh's Roslin

Institute in 1996, warned that even the barn reserved for Dolly and the

other cloned sheep would not protect them if foot-and-mouth did strike on

the farm.

CHERISHED PARADE CANCELED

Organizers of St. 's Day festivities in Dublin heeded a government

plea and called off the country's biggest annual event -- a parade through

the capital's streets that was expected to draw 500,000 spectators from

across the country.

Foot-and-mouth disease has not yet been found in the Irish Republic. But a

case confirmed Thursday at a farm just inside the border of Northern Ireland

prompted fears that it could spread south.

Irish police yesterday sealed off a farm in County Louth, about 20 miles

south of the border, out of concern that sheep there had been in contact

with animals at the tainted farm in the North. The Kildare Chilling Co. meat

processing plant was also shut down for similar reasons.

" For the past 10 days, we have been addressing a crisis which carries with

it a once-in-a-generation threat, " Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told

the country's parliament yesterday.

There are no known cases in the Republic of Ireland or on the European

mainland, and those governments hope to keep it that way.

The farming-intensive Irish Republic called off all weekend sporting events.

Britain's biggest dog show, Crufts, was also canceled. Today's

Wales-vs.-Ireland Six Nations rugby match in Cardiff, Wales, was put on

hold.

ALL CASES FROM SINGLE FARM

Prime Minister Tony Blair said all cases of the livestock virus in the

United Kingdom could be traced to a single farm.

" At the moment, each of the cases identified, even in Northern Ireland and

Scotland, are all traceable back to the one farm, the origin of it, in

Northumberland, " he said.

In parts of Britain, consumers were beginning to see meat shortages in

supermarkets after a weeklong ban on the movement of livestock. Blair said

the restrictions " had made a dramatic difference to 1967, " when nearly half

a million animals were destroyed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth.

The European Commission has banned all livestock imports from Britain until

next Friday. Tens of thousands of sheep have been slaughtered and burned in

France, not because they had the disease but for fear they might have been

infected by animals imported recently from Britain.

British-exported animals also have been destroyed in Germany, Belgium and

the Netherlands, although no cases have yet been found. China banned imports

of some British livestock yesterday.

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Livestock Outbreak Britain's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the first

in 20 years, has resulted in thousands of animals being slaughtered to stop

the spread of the virus.

What is it? Highly infectious viral disease in animals characterized by

fever followed by blisters in the mouth or on the feet.

Who can get it? Only cloven-hoofed animals - cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.

How is it spread? Several ways: easily through the air; from one animal to

another; by eating contaminated feed; by humans carrying the virus on their

shoes, clothing and machinery.

Treatment Upon confirmation of the virus, the animal must be killed.

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A1