EU declares UK 'high risk' area
Europe’s veterinary experts today agreed emergency measures declaring the whole of Britain a “high risk” area until mid-October.
The move came after the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, holding its regular weekly meeting in Brussels, received confirmation of the latest foot and mouth outbreak.
Earlier the committee, made up of national government veterinary experts from all EU countries, reversed yesterday’s decision to lift a ban on British beef export trade from the infected Surrey area because the earlier outbreak of the disease seemed to have been contained.
British government officials went to the committee this afternoon, updating the experts and European Commission officials on security precautions now in place once more.
The measures – automatic under EU rules once an outbreak strikes – include culling of all animals on the infected holding, a three-kilometre “protection zone” and a ten-kilometre “surveillance zone” around the infected farm.
A Commission statement this afternoon said: “Stringent movement restrictions and biosecurity measures are being applied in these zones. In addition, a movement ban on all ruminants and pigs has again been imposed across Great Britain.”
The statement went on: “The Standing Committee adopted an emergency decision confirming these measures and extending the categorisation of Great Britain as a high risk area until October 15 2007, subject to review.
“This means that live animals susceptible to foot and mouth disease cannot be dispatched from Great Britain, nor can their products. The only exception is for products which have been treated in a way which inactivates the virus (eg heat-treatment), which were produced before the restrictions applied or with materials sourced from outside the restriction zone.”
The restrictions mean no live animals can be sent to Great Britain from other EU countries, although live animals can be exported to the rest of the EU from Northern Ireland, subject to the necessary health certificates.
A Commission spokesman added: “The Commission will remain in close contact with the UK authorities to monitor the development of this latest outbreak over the coming days.”
