How long will this crisis last ? 21/2/01

NICK BROWN:
As soon as it was confirmed, ministers were told and the protection measures put in place. I'm quite happy to publish a full chronology.

JEREMY VINE:
There is absolutely no delay between hearing it had been confirmed and stopping exports?

NICK BROWN:
I'm taking immediate action. We informed the European Union straightaway and co-ordinated our protection measures. It's vital we get on top of this quickly and exterminate the disease in this country as soon as we can.

VINE:
There is a vaccine. Why is that not routinely in use?

NICK BROWN:
There are two methods of containing the disease. One is the "isolate and exterminate" approach - that has traditionally been the UK's. The other is to vaccinate against foot-and-mouth disease, but that assumes that the condition is still there, that the animals are vaccinated against it. I do not want to compromise our disease-free status, which stands us in good stead in world trade. The best thing to do is to get this disease, isolate it, exterminate it and get us back to our disease-free status for the purposes of trade as quickly as we can.

VINE:
We've learned that the foot-and-mouth discovered is type O. It was present last year in South Africa, Mongolia, South Korea and Japan. Have we banned imports from those countries?

NICK BROWN:
It is not permissible to import infected material...to import material from areas of infectivity. The legal constraints are very, very tight indeed.

VINE:
Do you know whether we have bans active from those four countries?

NICK BROWN:
I've checked the South Africa position and there is a ban in place, but there is a more general ban that we have in the United Kingdom that prevents importation of livestock material, material from susceptible animals, from areas where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic. The control measures are thorough. There is the EU's regime.

VINE:
When you say "areas", do you mean countries?

NICK BROWN:
Regions, usually nation states. You are right, but not necessarily.

VINE Unless we have a country-wide ban, in the case of countries which have been affected by the disease, you are placing a lot of reliance on the meat not moving inside the country from one part to another.

NICK BROWN:
You can always make this point about international trade. It is not the legal framework that at fault here. The difficulty is the illegal movement of product.

VINE:
We had an outbreak of classical swine fever before this. Now we're seeing foot-and-mouth. It suggests that our controls are becoming more lax, or that the whole business of importing is becoming somehow busier and leaving us more exposed.

NICK BROWN:
It may well be there is something in the way in which modern industry works that places our country more at risk. I'm worried about that. That is why ministers have asked for a clear description of the alternative routes to infectivity from classical swine fever. Work on that continues and we have made the same request for the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

VINE:
Greece had foot-and-mouth disease last year. The EU ban lasted there for six months. Are we thinking about that kind of time-frame here?

NICK BROWN:
The European Union's response in the case of the United Kingdom has been exactly the same as it was in the case of Greece. We supported measures last year to contain the condition within Greece. We don't have cause for complaint.

VINE:
When you hear a time-frame of six months, you wouldn't be surprised if it was that long?

NICK BROWN:
I'm not commenting on any time-frame extrapolated from other people's experience. We have a strong and professional veterinary service in this country. If extra resources are needed, they are there and could be called on. I'm determined we take tough action, including quarantine and the inspection of every farm business that sent animals into the affected abattoir, so we can trace this back to source, find any areas of infectivity, isolate them and, if necessary, the Government will purchase the animals from the farmer, pay 100% compensation and destroy them.

VINE:
You've talked about 100% compensation. Is that irrespective of the length of time it take to sort it out?

NICK BROWN:
If the Government needs to destroy a farmer's animals because they have foot-and-mouth disease, the Government buys the animals and pays 100% compensation. It's an independent valuation and an arbitration procedure if that is needed.