Officials gag Kiwi vets to avoid foot-in-mouth

Government officials yesterday gagged Kiwi veterinarians just back from fighting foot-and-mouth disease in Britain from making comments which might offend the British Government.

The vets - Hugh Davies of the National Centre for Disease Investigation and Derek Timbs of Agriquality New Zealand - appeared at a Wellington media conference organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

But MAF's programme coordinator for exotic disease response, Matthew Stone, told the journalists present that the vets would not answer questions which might offend the British Government.

"There is now open criticism of some aspects of the Government's handling of the crisis," he said. "We are very aware of the potential impact of statements made here in New Zealand and how they would be received in the UK."

Because New Zealand vets had helped the British under an international agreement for sharing veterinary resources, they had built up considerable goodwill with Britain's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF).

Mr Stone agreed this meant the vets would not answer questions about criticisms that Britain had put far too few resources into battling foot-and-mouth at the start of the emergency. They would also not discuss the extent to which MAFF had wasted New Zealand software it had bought - specially designed for directing the fight against a foot-and-mouth outbreak - to the point where it had been used at headquarters but not in the field.

The Epiman software, designed for use in NZ, was bought by MAFF two years ago.

But all three groups setting it up in Britain - the British Veterinary Laboratories Agency, MAFF, and an arm of Massey University - are reported to have been diverted by their contributions to an inquiry into mad-cow disease.

Mr Stone did not say if the other six members of the vet team would also be gagged.

- NZPA

Herald Online feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

World organisation for animal health

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature

Virus databases online