Food, animal bans now include Europe

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON agricultural editor

Food and animal imports from Europe have been banned after a foot and mouth outbreak in France.

The trade block, placed against Britain last month and yesterday extended to Argentina after it reported cases of the disease, matched the strict measures taken by the US and Australia.

Air passengers from mainland Europe will now be vetted in the same manner as people arriving from the UK since last month's outbreak. The same checks permanently apply to arrivals from Asia, where the disease is endemic.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said people would be screened and assessed for the likelihood of their bringing in risk products, and asked if they had been on livestock farms.

Any risk products would be confiscated, and footwear or outdoor equipment used on or near a farm would be cleaned and/or fumigated.

A ministry spokeswoman said thousands of travellers would be affected by the measures and it was simpler to count who would not be. Only people arriving from America and Australia would escape the more stringent checks, she said.

Between March 5 and 11, the Quarantine Service had confiscated 2082 food items, including fruit, meat, seeds and plants.

MAF said the restrictions would stay until European Union countries had satisfied New Zealand that they were totally free of the disease.

Ministry animal biosecurity director Derek Belton said trade impacts from the ban were not expected to be large because few imports came from Europe. The products affected included meat and dairy products, byproducts, semen, embryos and live cloven-hoofed animals.

Meanwhile, false claims about a madcow-like disease in New Zealand's sheep flock have spread unchecked in cyber space.

Under pressure from New Zealand, Germany's farmer-backed Central Marketing Agency (CMA) yesterday moved to retract statements widely circulated in pamphlets and on its website alleging New Zealand sheep were infected with scrapie.

But another German agricultural website has carried similar information for an unknown length of time.

The Herald yesterday alerted Meat NZ to the site, schweine-im-netz.de, which translates as "pigs-on-the-net."

Meat NZ spokeswoman Sue Miller said her organisation would ask the CMA to ensure false information was removed from the pig site.

"It was one of our concerns from the start that people would pick up [the false claim] and spread it."

The retraction deal required the CMA to distribute correct information to a range of food, animal welfare and nutrition organisations and it was hoped that would reach most groups, Ms Miller said.

Federated Farmers, which criticised the redress measures won by Meat NZ, said the deal should have specifically covered the likelihood of additional websites spreading the false claims.

Meat and fibre chairman Chris Lester said farmers believed Meat NZ should try to determine the source of the incorrect information and whether its spread was a deliberate campaign to undermine the credibility of New Zealand meat products.

Germany is New Zealand's second most valuable sheep meat market, worth around $220 million annually.

Ms Miller said her organisation was keen to track down the claim's source "in case it is used elsewhere."

Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said he hoped Meat NZ would chase up other websites that carried incorrect information and ensure they received the retraction.

CMA director Gerd Sonnleitner, who is touring New Zealand, apologised for the misleading statements yesterday at a press conference in Wellington.

Mr Sonnleitner, president of the German Farmers Federation, gave an assurance that the offending pamphlet would not lead to negative consumer reaction to New Zealand lamb.

"We are partners, not competitors," he said.

Feature: Foot-and-Mouth Disease epidemic