Foot-and-mouth disease brings British livestock industry to a halt

By NIGEL MORRIS, IAN HERBERT and MICHAEL McCARTHY

LONDON - Britain's entire livestock industry was brought to a standstill early today as the Minister of Agriculture, Nick Brown, imposed a seven-day ban on the movement of farm animals across the country in a desperate bid to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

Mr Brown's action came as government scientists pointed to a farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, as the probable source of the outbreak, amid fears that the disease had been spreading across the countryside for up to a month, and claims that the Government had been tipped off about squalid conditions on the farm several months ago.

The ban on moving cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, which may hit meat supplies in the shops if it lasts longer than its initial seven days, was announced as the total number of farming businesses known to be affected by foot-and-mouth rose to six, with cattle as well as pigs found to be infected for the first time.

Locations now known to be affected include two farms in Northumberland and an abattoir and three farms in Essex, the county where the disease was first discovered in 27 pigs five days ago at the Cheale Meats slaughterhouse in Little Warley.

Since then hundreds of animals have been killed in a desperate attempt to contain the outbreak, and this weekend the British countryside is virtually closed down – all 11 National Parks are asking potential visitors to keep away, the National Trust is asking people to stay out of the countryside and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has shut down all its 171 nature reserves. However, five horse-racing meetings are going ahead today.

The Government's chief veterinary officer, Jim Scudamore, said the source of the outbreak had been traced to the farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, which regularly delivers live pigs to the Essex slaughterhouse. The disease also appeared to have spread from there to cattle at a farm four miles away at Ponteland. Mr Scudamore said the pigs at Heddon-on-the-Wall could have developed the disease between 10 and 14 days ago – and could have incubated it for up to 14 days before that.

Martin Coutts of the Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norwich, said: "We got a tip-off in December last year that there was something going on at the farm. The tip-off was to the effect that rotting carcasses were being burned or left in with live pigs. They also complained that sows were giving birth among other pigs and that pigs were eating tiny piglets.

"The tip-off described it as nothing short of sheer squalor and we sent a team up to check it out.... [We saw] containers full of what purported to be pig feed but was obviously not. We strongly suspected it had a meat content and we reported our findings to the RSPCA.

"We were told the RSPCA were too short-staffed over the Christmas period and couldn't investigate but the complaint was passed to the Trading Standards' animal health department and [the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food].

"Maff and trading standards inspectors went into the premises on 19 December and from information we have we believe Trading Standards wanted to prosecute Mr Waugh. But Maff just issued a warning for him to clean up his act. We weren't happy that the issue was left unresolved.

"We believethat this disease could have been at the farm around December last year. Had Maff moved in it could have isolated the problem. It could be now that as a result we have another epidemic."

Mr Brown said he hoped food supplies would not be affected by the drastic moves, but he could not guarantee it. He urged people to take care when visiting farms that could harbour the disease and confirmed that fox-hunting would be banned. But he gave the go-ahead to horse-race meetings following advice that horses were unlikely to spread the virus.

Mr Brown said: "Everybody should keep calm and behave proportionately. There is no need for panic buying in the supermarkets, we are not going to run out of food. If everyone just carries on normally then we will get through this all right."

He said the restrictions applied to cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, but did not affect horses, poultry, milk or animal feed. He said police would be on standby to stop movement of livestock, with farmers breaking the rules facing fines of up to $15,000.

Maff, which has set up an emergency control centre to try to manage the crisis, has been flooded with calls from farmers asking vets to examine its livestock. Early today a Maff official denied the country was facing an epidemic, adding: "We're on nothing like that scale now, but the situation is changing rapidly."