Farmers are preparing for the foot-and-mouth crisis to spread further despite the UK government’s claims that the highly contagious livestock disease is under control. The total of confirmed cases stood at 168 on Monday.
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Agriculture minister Nick Brown said he was ‘absolutely certain’ that the crisis was under control, but the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food confirmed a record daily total of 25 more outbreaks yesterday. Brown said all known outbreaks could all be traced back to the original outbreak.
It is thought that a second wave of cases has been caused by the airborne nature of the virus rather than the restriction of livestock and human movement.
Meanwhile, Ireland has slammed the UK’s handling of the crisis. Natural resources minister, Hugh Byrne accused the UK of ‘totally mishandling’ the situation on Sunday.
“They seem to have been of the opinion that this disease was just going to go away — they seem to me and to many people in Ireland to have cared very little about the farmers in Britain and very little about their neighbours like ourselves,” he said.
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By GlobalDataGermany said on the weekend it was investigating foot-and-mouth symptoms amongst calves in the Lower Saxony region. State Agriculture Minister Uwe Bartels said that initial blood and tissue tests for foot-and-mouth were negative.
just-food.com published a feature on foot and mouth. To read it, click here.
