UK says it is beating foot-and-mouth
April 1, 2001
Web posted at: 3:28 AM HKT (1928 GMT)
LONDON, England -- The UK government believes it is beginning to win its battle against foot-and-mouth disease despite the continued rise in the number of outbreaks, which now stand at 845.
The claim was made on Saturday as Prime Minister Tony Blair was spending the weekend pondering two major decisions -- whether to use vaccines against the virus and when to hold a general election.
"We are beginning to punch our weight on the ground," Blair's spokeswoman said.
"This is undoubtedly going to be a long haul, but we are determined to keep the pressure on through the work of the military ... to deliver real change."
More troops and 1,300 vets -- including 112 from Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and France -- have been called in to fight against the disease.
Slaughtermen have been working around the clock to clear the backlog of animals earmarked for culling.
In a new development, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown announced that cattle below the age of five will be buried instead of burnt to speed up the cull process.
Agriculture officials hope the speeded-up slaughter will stem the spread of the disease, but they announced early Saturday that more than 60 new cases had been confirmed in the 36 hours since Thursday evening.
Blair says he will make a decision soon on whether to vaccinate 180,000 dairy cattle against foot-and-mouth -- a move he is reluctant to make because it would lengthen the time Britain needs to regain its "foot-and-mouth-free" trade status once the disease is eradicated.
He is also under pressure to choose a general election date.
He initially had planned on May 3, but some say it would be inappropriate to call an election while the foot-and-mouth crisis still grips the countryside and there is speculation that it could now be held on June 7.
Culture Secretary Chris Smith, visiting the Tower of London in hopes of boosting tourism, said if Blair waits too long for an election it could harm Britain's image overseas.
Many potential visitors, particularly in the United States, Britain's biggest market, have been frightened off by images of slaughtered animals and enormous funeral pyres.
"If there were to be a substantial delay, I would be extremely worried because of the signal that would be sent out," Smith said.
"My primary concern would be the summer, because that is the most important time for overseas visitors. I think any message that might indicate that Great Britain is going to be an abnormal place would be unfortunate."
But there are already signs that the tourism trade is being harmed.
Smith said the British tourism industry was losing about £100 million ($150 million) per week, but warned that the figure could rise to as much as £250 million ($375 million) per week.
One senior Northern Ireland minister said that Americans are so ill-informed about foot-and-mouth that they believe they will catch the disease if they visit and in extreme cases that "their hands and feet will fall off."
Stormont Enterprise and Tourism minister Sir Reg Empey said the disease would have a "devastating" effect on tourism in the region unless such perceptions were countered.
The minister said he had received a report from the U.S. on the beliefs of prospective tourists and it made "grim reading."
No case of foot-and-mouth has occurred in the United States since 1929 and the U.S. government is taking steps to prevent an outbreak.
"We have cut off the import of any animals from foot-and-mouth disease countries," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told CNN as tests on suspected pigs in North Carolina proved negative.
Meanwhile, tourist numbers at the Tower of London, one of Britain's top attractions, are down by at least 10 percent because of the crisis.
A government spokeswoman said bookings for hotels in the capital and in the rest of Britain are also down.
American visitors to the Tower on Saturday confirmed that scare stories in the US had got out of hand.
Nancy Mahony, from Philadelphia, told the UK Press Association: "People are saying 'Why are you going to Great Britain. You are going to die.'
"They connect foot and mouth with mad cow disease, they assume it's all the same."
She added: "I wasn't concerned about coming here but I know that lots of people have been cancelling their flights.
"We were told not to eat the beef here by the papers in America. There's a lot of misinformation."
The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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