LONDON - The British Government says it has eradicated a prolonged foot-and-mouth outbreak and has declared its last "at risk" region free of the livestock disease, ending a devastating chapter for farmers.
The epidemic, which shut world markets to UK meat, led to the slaughter of more than four million
animals and frightened off tourists with pictures of burning livestock carcasses on funeral pyres, had lingered in northern England.
Officials said the latest tests on sheep in the northeast county of Northumberland had proved negative and the region, believed to have been the source of the outbreak, was now free to resume domestic trade.
"Today sees a landmark in the fight against foot-and-mouth disease," Lord Whitty, a minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said in a statement on Monday.
"Work is still going on to complete cleansing and disinfection on individual farms and to obtain international recognition that Britain can be declared disease free."
Following soon after Britain's mad cow disease crisis and a raft of other food scares, the foot-and-mouth outbreak that began last February hit meat sales, put farmers out of business and forced the government to spend millions in compensation.
The disease, which affects cloven-hoofed animals, rarely affects humans, but many consumers turned against UK beef, pork and lamb after seeing the mass cull and burning or burial of millions of animals.
Farmers in northeast England said the news would give them the chance to start getting their lives back to normal.
"This is absolutely fantastic news for farmers in the north and for the whole of Britain," Rob Simpson, a spokesman for the National Farmers Union (NFU) in northeast England, told Reuters.
Officials have said they believe a farm in Northumberland was the source of the epidemic that spread the length and breadth of the country, infecting more than 2,000 farms. The last confirmed case was on September 30.
Ben Gill, NFU president, said the news drew a line under "11 months of hell", but he hoped that accompanying licensing procedures for animal movements would be relaxed swiftly.
"The lifting of the last 'at risk' area will remove a long, dark shadow from the countryside...We all hope that this is truly the beginning of the end of this appalling chapter," Gill said in a statement.
"But we must now go to the European and world authorities as soon as humanly possible to get our disease-free status back."
The decision to declare Britain free of the disease opens the door for UK officials to call for the end of international trade sanctions imposed over the crisis.
The director-general of the organisation that handles requests to be classified as free of foot-and-mouth said on Friday Britain had two weeks to apply for fast track processing.
Bernard Vallat of the Paris-based Office International des Epizooties (OIE) said if Britain failed to apply for re-admission to the group of foot-and-mouth disease-free countries in the next two weeks, it might be forced to wait several more months.
- REUTERS
Feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster
World organisation for animal health
UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease
Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature
Virus databases online
LONDON - The British Government says it has eradicated a prolonged foot-and-mouth outbreak and has declared its last "at risk" region free of the livestock disease, ending a devastating chapter for farmers.
The epidemic, which shut world markets to UK meat, led to the slaughter of more than four million
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