(Long) NYT article on worries about foot-and-mouth disease.
March 14, 2001
Concern Over Foot-and-Mouth Disease Spreads
Worldwide
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS with DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
WASHINGTON, March 14 — Norway
and Australia today joined the United
States and other countries in banning
imports of animals and animal products from the
European Union, following reports that
foot-and-mouth disease had spread to France
from Britain.
The Norwegians voted in 1994 not to join other
Western European countries in the European
Union, leaving Norway outside the ban that the
United States imposed on Tuesday on meat and
related products from the 15 member countries
of the European Union.
The Norwegian minister of agriculture, Bjarne
Haakon Hanssen, told reporters today that the
ban would last at least two weeks. Norway's
decision was likely to be hardest on neighboring
Sweden, a vital trading partner that belongs to
the European Union.
Australia, which earlier in the week had banned
importing horses from Britain, expanded its ban
immediately to include all livestock and their
products from Europe because of the outbreak
of the disease in France.
Australia's quarantine laws are generally strict.
Even on domestic flights, interstate travelers are
not allowed to bring in some fresh fruit and
vegetables at their destinations. The ban in
response to the latest epidemic of
foot-and-mouth disease was "consistent with
Australia's cautious approach to quarantine," the
Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
said in a statement. It said the restrictions would
be reviewed daily and could be expanded
further.
New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Estonia and
Latvia also announced restrictions today on
animals and animal products from the European
Union.
The ban Tuesday by the United States on such
exports prompted some European officials to
complain that the Bush administration was
overreacting.
In Brussels, the headquarters of the European
Union's executive commission, its
spokeswoman for health and consumer affairs,
Beate Gminder, criticized the United States' ban
as "not proportionate" and "excessive," because
it was imposed against animal products from all
15 member countries and not just Britain and
France.
"The level of vigilance and surveillance in the E.U. is extremely high," Ms. Gminder said,
according to the French news agency, Agence France Presse. "We have felt we have
done everything, and put everything in place, that is necessary to combat the disease."
Still, three members of the European Union — Belgium, Portugal and Spain — are
closing their borders to French meat, as is Switzerland. Norway previously banned
imports of French farm products, and Germany and Italy took protective measures.
Canada also banned meat imports from the European Union, as well as from Argentina,
which has found foot-and-mouth disease in the northwest. Argentina said it would
voluntarily restrict beef exports.
In Rome, the Food and Agriculture Organization said the rapid new spread of
foot-and-mouth disease in Europe demonstrated the virulent virus's ability "to infiltrate a
wide geographic area and to cause epidemics in countries which have been free from the
disease for many years."
The United Nations food agency pointed out that the highly contagious disease remained
endemic in many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America.
"Emergency preparedness, contingency plans and awareness campaigns are of critical
importance" in controlling foot-and-mouth disease, the F.A.O. said in a statement. "No
country can consider itself safe from the risk of the disease, due to increased
international trade, tourism, the movement of animals, animal products and foodstuff."
In Washington, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said every precaution would be
taken to prevent the foot-and-mouth epidemic in Europe from reaching the United States.
"We haven't had a case since 1929," Ms. Veneman told CNN. "The measures we are
taking are to ensure that we remain a foot-and-mouth disease-free country."
The Agriculture Department said it was taking the precautions to protect the domestic
industry from a possible outbreak of the virus, which could cost the American industry
billions of dollars in just one year.
The virus poses little danger to people, even if they eat the meat of infected animals. But
it is virulently contagious and is devastating for cattle, swine, sheep, deer and other
cloven-hoofed animals, which it generally debilitates and often leaves unable to grow or
produce milk.
Kimberley Smith, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, said many items,
including most cheeses and cured or cooked meats, are not affected because they are
heated in a way that kills the virus.
The ban is expected to hit pork producers the most. European beef is already banned by
the United States because of mad cow disease, which can cause fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease in humans.
The Agriculture Department is "taking this time to assess our exclusion activities as a
precaution to ensure that we don't get foot-and-mouth disease in the United States," Ms.
Smith said. Department officials did not detail which European products would be
subject to the ban. But they said it would prohibit the importation of live swine, pork and
meat from sheep and goats, regardless of whether it is fresh or frozen. Yogurt and most
cheeses would be permitted, they said, because those sold in the United States are made
from pasteurized milk.
Canned ham or any other food products that have been heated above 175 degrees
Fahrenheit are permitted because such processing inactivates the virus, the officials said.
The production of such favored items as French brie and Italian prosciutto is closely
monitored to meet stringent export standards, she said, so they are not affected by the
ban. Brie entering the United States is made from pasteurized milk and is considered safe.
A spokesman for the European Commission in Washington, Gerry Kiely, said the ban
would cost European exporters as much as $458 million a year in sales. The agriculture
department put the cost at $400 million at most.
On Tuesday, French officials confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease was found among
cattle at a dairy farm in Laval, in northwestern France. Officials said farmers in the area
had imported sheep from Britain, which is at the center of the current outbreak and has
already slaughtered about 170,000 animals to contain the disease.
The disease, which is so infectious that it can be spread by footwear and cars, appeared
in France despite tight precautions. The infected dairy farm, near La Baroche-Gondouin
in the Mayenne district, was inside an isolation zone.
Last week France set up double sets of roadblocks in 19 regions and created a 1.8-mile
ring around a suspect farm. Under these restrictions, animals are required to remain in
the fields, dogs must be kept away and all people and vehicles leaving farms are
disinfected. Within a wider radius of about six miles, no animals are allowed to circulate,
even to go to slaughter.
Animals believed to be infected are killed and burned in the field on pyres of
gasoline-soaked wood, then buried nearby. French farmers have already killed 50,000
sheep: 20,000 imported from Britain since Feb. 1, and 30,000 French sheep that had
contact with them.
The foot-and-mouth disease in France was found in a herd of 114 cows that had been
grazing near sheep from a neighboring farm that had been imported from Britain. The
sheep were all slaughtered last week as a precaution. When six cows showed mouth
lesions on Monday, the entire herd was killed immediately and incinerated. Only two
tested positive for the disease, French officials said.
The director general for food of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Catherine
Geslain-Lanèelle, tried to calm the situation, saying, "At this stage, we shouldn't speak of
an epidemic; we have a concentration."
European officials voiced dismay that their livestock producers would be kept from the
American market by the second ban in four years. (The first was in reaction to the
outbreak of mad cow disease.)
The Bush administration announced the step just hours after a group of veterinarians
working for the European Union objected to the existing ban on European beef, saying
global fears of mad cow disease had led to restrictions that were "excessive and not
supported by any technical arguments."
American agricultural experts and representatives of the livestock industry praised the
ban as timely. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Agriculture Committee, said: "Right now, we just don't know how far this disease has
spread. It is common sense to take protective measures."
American experts in animal disease said the United States should take draconian measures
if necessary to avoid an outbreak of foot and mouth. In the first two decades of the last
century, they noted, there were repeated and devastating outbreaks of the disease, which
was likely transmitted when garbage from oceanliners were fed to pigs as food.
The last reported incidence of foot-and-mouth disease in this country was in 1929.
"I think it's a logical step to take," said John Maas, a veterinarian and food-safety
specialist at the University of California at Davis. "Slam the door quick, before the
damage is done."
Dr. Maas noted that the disease is still endemic in many parts of the world, most notably
in parts of China, the Middle East and former Soviet republics. But the risk posed by the
European animals was especially worrisome because American authorities have been less
vigilant about products from that part of the world, he said.
"The threat is not new," Dr. Maas said. "It's just the direction it's coming from."
American livestock producers expressed sympathy with their European counterparts,
even as they acknowledged that they might benefit by taking over European markets in
Japan, Russia and elsewhere.
"It's a very unfortunate situation and our producers feel for the producers in the United
Kingdom and France," said Nicholas Giordano, the international trade counsel for the
National Pork Producers Council, which is based in Des Moines. "We're pleased with the
action that the U.S.D.A. has taken, but we don't take any glee in it."
Even including the processed items that are not being banned, European pork exporters
provide a small fraction of the pork consumed in the United States, about 4 percent, in
sales valued at $200 million to $250 million a year, Mr. Giordano said. Denmark is by far
the biggest supplier, accounting for about 70 percent of American imports.
Mr. Giordano predicted that depending on how long the ban lasts, American consumers
might detect higher prices for pork ribs, frozen shoulders or unprocessed ham, which
are being banned.
But, he said, there may be a more significant economic impact for American producers,
who could gain ground in sales to third countries at Europe's expense. The American
pork industry, which generates farm income of $11 billion a year, sells to nearly 100
countries, he added.
In addition to the ban on European Union products, the administration said, it plans to
send a team of 40 experts to monitor efforts to contain the disease. It also has placed
airports and other entry points on heightened alert to inspect travelers and their cargo,
and begun a publicity campaign about steps to prevent the spread of the disease.
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company |
