EU Ban on UK Livestock

As British officials scrambled to uncover the source of the foot and mouth outbreak, the EU slapped a ban on all meat imports and livestock from Britain. The ban covers fresh meat as well as live cattle, pigs, sheep and goats and milk products from the affected area, Philip Tod, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner, Markos Kyrpianou, said Monday.

"All live animals from the rest of Britain, but not meat and dairy products, will also be banned for export," Tod said.

The scope and duration of the ban is to be reviewed on Wednesday by EU veterinary experts. Tod said all of Great Britain, with the exception of Northern Ireland, was being treated as a high-risk area.

"The main element will be the establishment of a high-risk area where cattle and pigs and sheep and goats cannot be exported to other member states nor can fresh meat or milk products," he said.

According to reports, the ban is expected to cost Britain's livestock industry up to 22 million euros ($30.3 million) a week.

The British government has already slapped a ban on all movement of cows, sheep and pigs and agreed to an export ban.

The European Commission said that all EU regulations were being applied in Britain, including culling animals in the infected premises and establishing a three-kilometre (two-mile) protection zone around the outbreak.

Lab suspected to be at heart of outbreak

Strains of foot and mouth disease were discovered Friday in cattle at a farm located near the private US pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health in Pirbright, just south of London.

Large amounts of vaccines containing the same strain of the disease had been produced at the company in July.

Merial, owned by U.S. drug maker Merck & Co. Inc and
Sanofi-Aventis SA, has operated in Britain for 15
years without any disease escaping, the company said.

"To date our investigations continue to show no breach in our procedures," Merial's managing director David Biland said Monday, according to German news agency DPA. "However, it is still too early in this investigation for anyone to determine the cause of the outbreak."

According to a BBC report on Monday, investigators in Pirbright hope to find a result within the next 36 hours that would indicate whether or not the lab can be implicated in the outbreak.

The Institute for Animal Heath Laboratory, also located in close proximity to the site of the outbreak, is also under investigation because it is known to use the virus strain. It has denied any breach in bio-security procedures.

Brown reassures farmers

On Monday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sought to reassure farmers, saying a "major national effort" was under way to stop the disease spreading.

During a visit to the Regional Disease Control Centre in Reigate,
Surrey, southern England, which is coordinating efforts to deal with the outbreak, Brown said he understood it was a difficult time for the farmers. He added that more than 150 vets and others had been drafted in to help make checks in the area.

"We must do everything we can to control, contain and eradicate
this disease," added Brown, who cut short his summer holiday to deal with the threatened crisis. "This is a major national effort, the focus of which is to contain and control the disease and then eradicate it."

The case is the first outbreak since the last foot and mouth epidemic in 2001 that had devastating consequences for the British farming industry and included the culling of up to 10 million animals.

During the 2001 outbreak, the government was accused of reacting too slowly, something that allowed the disease to spread.

As well as the EU ban, several countries including Japan, South Korea, Ireland and Russia have blocked imports of meat or animals coming from Britain.