A glimmer of hope for farmers

Certain disease-free livestock can be slaughtered

Friday 2nd March 2001

The government has set out details of its plans to ease the ban on livestock movements, which was imposed to try to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

Farmers in unaffected areas will be given licenses to transport animals, under strict conditions, to slaughter. There have been seven new confirmed cases today bringing the total to 39.

The Government's Chief Veterinary Officer, Jim Scudamore, said the existing restrictions are helping to stop the spread of the disease.

The junior Agriculture minister, Lady Hayman said she was satisfied that today's livestock transportation plan wouldn't lead to any further spread of foot and mouth.

Utmost caution

"We are not increasing the risk. We are taking clean animals from uninfected farms ," she said.

The shadow agriculture minister, Tim Yeo, welcomed the idea but urged the government to proceed with the utmost caution.

Strict foot-and-mouth controls remain

"One of the lessons from the 1967 outbreak is that we mustn't lift the restrictions too quickly. It would very sad if we ran a risk that we subsequently regretted," he said.

The job of policing the safe passages for livestock transportation falls to local authorities' food and trading standards offices.

Diverting resources

Nick Cull co-ordinates their work nationally and said he was confident that they were ready to cope with the new legislation.

"Local authorities have shown over the past few months, with the floods, that they can respond to all sorts of emergencies.

"Clearly they will be diverting resources from some areas of work into this area over the coming weeks," he said.

Among today's other developments - a Cumbrian farmer is to be prosecuted for the alleged illegal movement of cattle during the current foot-and-mouth crisis.

And the Austrian government has advised its nationals not to travel to Britain until the disease has cleared up.

Foot-and-mouth: a basic guide