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UK farmers' woes continue
24/09/2007 11:27 - (SA)
London - British farmers have already spent two months worrying over foot-and-mouth disease. Now the country's first case of bluetongue, an insect-borne illness recently brought to northern Europe by warming weather, has added to their headache.
Scientists are testing flies on a farm in eastern England to see if the single bluetongue case, first announced Saturday, is part of a larger outbreak. On Sunday officials imposed restrictions around premises in near Petersfield, Hampshire, southwest of London, after another suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease was discovered by a veterinarian.
"Farmers must think that the gods have it in for them and it's a horrible year," Neil Parish, the chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, told British Broadcasting Corp television. "It really is a problem."
Neither incident will necessarily turn into new outbreaks, but farmers have already been hurt by the restrictions imposed on movement and exports following two outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease discovered over the summer. Hundreds of animals have been slaughtered and movement of animals have been restricted at what is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for livestock sales.
Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, and pigs, and while it rarely kills livestock, its after effects can be debilitating. Bluetongue, once common only in Mediterranean climes, affects cows and other ruminant animals and can be fatal. Neither disease usually affects humans, but the economic consequences of the diseases can be devastating.
When foot-and-mouth tore through the British countryside in 2001, millions of cattle, sheep and pig carcasses were burned on large pyres across the country. The farming industry lost millions in revenue. Bluetongue, meanwhile, has led to the slaughter or death of more than 1.8 million animals in Europe over the past 10 years, Parish said.
Whole sector suffering
The National Farmers' Union appealed Sunday for the government to support farmers hurt by foot-and-mouth disease, a problem the body's president, Peter Kendall, said was being compounded by the fear of bluetongue.
"The whole livestock sector is suffering," Kendall said in a statement, calling on the government to help farmers in what he said was their hour of need.
Agriculture Minister Lord Rooker said the government had anticipated the arrival of bluetongue in Britain, which has been spreading across Europe from North Africa, and would do what it could to keep the virus from spreading.
"It may be that we can nip it in the bud. We will do our best to make sure it does not spread," Rooker said.
As the government weighed whether it was dealing with an outbreak of bluetongue, the suspected case of foot-and-mouth in Hampshire raised fears that the highly contagious disease had spread beyond the area where two previous outbreaks were discovered over the summer.
Those previous outbreaks were linked to a nearby laboratory site in Pirbright, which was blamed for leaking the virus into the environment. But Petersfield is about 48km to the southwest of the lab, and lies outside of the control zone imposed by authorities to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs cautioned there was no definitive evidence of an outbreak in Hampshire, and that tests were continuing.
/clh
- SAPA
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