Stock ban in France, UK meat price hike

LONDON - Britain's foot-and-mouth crisis has entered a third week with a major food supplier announcing a big hike in meat prices and Prince Charles warning the disaster could drive farmers to suicide.

As the crisis spread rapidly at home and abroad, France banned exports of animals at risk, other European countries tested their livestock and Asian states cut meat imports from Europe.

France, which has found traces of the highly contagious disease in slaughtered imported British sheep, also suspended the transport of all cloven-hoofed animals - except to slaughterhouses - for the next two weeks.

"There is a considerable potential risk. It could be a new tragedy for French farmers." Farm Minister Jean Glavany said yesterday.

Italy said it would urge the European Union today to close all national borders to imports and exports of livestock susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease.

However, tests on suspect livestock in France, Denmark and Belgium proved negative yesterday, meaning no case of the financially devastating disease has yet been confirmed in live animals on continental Europe.

Authorities throughout Europe have adopted a raft of measures to try to keep the disease at bay, effectively putting Britain in quarantine.

In Britain, the number of confirmed infection sites jumped by five to 74 and the burning of pyres of carcasses of thousands of pigs, sheep and cattle went on around the clock up and down the country.

Prince Charles expressed sympathy for Britain's 400,000 farmers and farm hands as they struggled to cope with another major crisis so soon after "mad cow" disease ripped through the industry in the 1980s and 90s.

"I do feel desperate for them," said the Prince, owner of a tenanted farm in southwest England that has been struck by the disease.

"It is another desperate blow on top of so many others ... There is a lot of real difficulty leading to complications like suicides."

One of the main suppliers to Britain's supermarkets said it would add 30 per cent to the prices of all its meat products in the next couple of days. Northern Foods blamed the hike on dwindling domestic supplies because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Supermarkets reported soaring meat sales, with shoppers stockpiling supplies.

"British pork and lamb have more or less run out now and wholesalers have started importing. British beef will run out any day," said Britain's main meat trade body, the Meat and Livestock Commission.

The Government is allowing farm animals from areas of the country not infected to be taken directly to slaughterhouses under stringent conditions.

- REUTERS

Feature: Foot-and-Mouth Disease epidemic