Americans 'think hands and feet will fall off' if they visit UK
Some Americans believe foot-and-mouth can cause their hands and feet to fall off, a Northern Ireland minister claims.
Stormont Enterprise and Tourism minister Sir Reg Empey said the disease would have a "devastating" effect on tourism, unless such perceptions were countered.
The minister said he had just received a report from the US, on the beliefs of prospective tourists, and said it made "grim reading".
He said: "They don't believe there will be any food here they will be able to eat, they believe they can contract the disease and in some extreme cases Americans think their hands and feet will fall off.
"This is how bizarre this incident has been played in the United States with the sort of CNN news bulletins, they see this place as a diseased country and we have a huge task to change those perceptions"
The tourism industry in the province was in a "real crisis", with some businesses closed down and getting absolutely no revenue at all, he said.
The Northern Ireland Tourist Board is due to start a major drive to try to win back business on the back of the EU's lifting of the export ban from early next week.
Meanwhile restrictions on the movement of livestock in Northern Ireland are being relaxed.
Northern Ireland has had only a single case of foot-and-mouth disease - in a sheep in South Armagh. The precautionary cull of 2,500 sheep in South Armagh is continuing.
