'Panic across the Channel'

Sign of the times

'Panic across the Channel.' That is how Brussels newspaper Le Soir describes the impact of outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in Britain.

"Panic - London hasn't messed about. Friday - the foot and mouth epidemic that threatens British livestock could grow to an unprecedented scale. In other words, things are going badly. Very badly," it said.

British fever benefits Breton pork

France-Ouest newspaper

Le Soir sees the European Union staying just on the right side of panic in its imposition of a quarantine on British meat exports, "disturbed, but not yet giving way to psychosis".

Belgium itself has imposed an indefinite ban on the movement of sheep and goats nationwide, and closed all its livestock markets on Thursday.

'If it reaches us we're finished'

The French daily Le Monde sent a special correspondent out to Brittany, the bastion of French pig-farming, to see how locals were reacting.

We have forgotten about the consumers for 30 years

Betrand Chretien, French pig-breeder

The area around Lamballe, not far from the Channel coast, remembers its last outbreak of foot and mouth in 1974.

"Troops at each crossroads, the disinfection of vehicles... and then the pitiless extermination of animals... pigs and dogs, cows and cats alike".

Given these memories, Le Monde is surprised at how calmly stockbreeders are taking the crisis in Britain.

"We are calm but on our guard," says Marcel Corman of the local pig-farmers' association.

The pig-farmers have noticed some immediate benefits from the crisis, as pork prices jumped from FFr11 to FFr13 a kilo at Plerin market over the weekend.

"British fever benefits Breton pork," says the newspaper France-Ouest.

Pigs at risk

A local stockbreeder is less sanguine about the danger, given the continuing menace of BSE.

"If foot and mouth reaches us here, it will be the end. Once we are hit by the full impact of mad-cow disease, there will be nothing to do but pack our bags."

Betrand Chretien, a pig-breeder, agrees with him and criticizes farmers for not paying enough attention to the concerns of the consumer.

"We have forgotten about the consumers for 30 years, and now they are demanding to see what we've been up to... If this continues, we'll tell our children to look farther afield and chose another path".

Ireland expects export bonanza

Irish food-producers are "gearing up for a IR£10m bonanza" a day, as they expect the crisis to lead British supermarkets to demand Irish meat to fill their shelves, according to the Irish Independent.

Border checks to continue

Kerry Group corporate affairs director Frank Hayes tells the paper that the foot and mouth outbreaks have not had any major impact within Ireland yet.

If the crisis continues, though, it will begin to tighten supplies pork and dairy products by the next week.

Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh says the ban on imports of livestock from Northern Ireland and through ports has been extended to fodder and silage, and will remain in place "as long as necessary".

'Time for new farming methods'

In Germany, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung says that the outbreak of foot and mouth disease has sparked a debate about what kind of agriculture Britain really wants.

The paper believes consumers are now seriously worried by all the health scares.

Authorities responded with the necessary radical measures

Sueddeutsche Zeitung

"If, as a result of the BSE crisis, they cannot even be sure that it is not dangerous to drink milk and eat cheese and when the incidence of food poisoning has risen 10 times within two years ... then it is high time to think about new farming methods."

The paper sees one consolation in all this.

"In contrast to the BSE crisis, when the dangers were played down, suppressed and made out to be harmless for years, the authorities have responded quickly and with the necessary radical measures this time."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.