Tracking foot-and-mouth disease

Animal imports can spread foot-and-mouth disease

Is foot-and-mouth disease a worldwide problem?

Foot-and-mouth disease is present in some form in more than 30 countries. It is endemic in parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America, where it is spread by wild animals.

The UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) says countries affected by foot-and-mouth disease in the past 12 months include Butan, Brazil, Columbia, Egypt, Georgia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Malawi, Malaysia, Mongolia, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, Taipei, Tajikstan, Uruguay and Zambia.

The last major outbreak of the disease in the European Union was in Greece last year.

Daniel Grooms, assistant professor of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University, US, said: "This is not a new problem. It's in South America, Asia, Africa and some eastern European countries.

"But now that it's in some western countries, we're taking notice and that's a good thing."

How does foot-and-mouth disease spread around the world?

Foot-and-mouth is spread by contact with infected animals, either directly or by the movement of people, animals, vehicles and other things, which have been contaminated by the virus.

The disease can also be blown large distances in the air and can spread around the world in infected meat.

The US is stepping up measures at airports and ports amid concern the virus could spread across the Atlantic on passengers' clothes or shoes.

John Baker, associate dean for research at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University, US, said: "We're dealing with a virus that has a survivability of up to nine weeks on clothing.

"It can come in on a lot of meat products. The way air travel is today, someone could be on a farm in Great Britain and in a short time be on a farm in Michigan."

Where did the UK outbreak originate?

There are seven main types of foot-and-mouth disease virus and many sub-types.

Maff says that the virus responsible for the present outbreak is the highly virulent pan-Asiatic strain.

This strain first emerged in India in 1990 and later moved into Saudi Arabia before moving east and west. Foot-and-mouth hit Japan and Korea last year, for the first time in nearly 70 years.

However, China has denied that it had any cases of foot-and-mouth disease and said on Tuesday that it could not be the source of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Europe.

The disease is believed to have arrived in the UK in infected meat.

Reports suggest that illegal imports of meat, intended for use in a Chinese restaurant, later found its way into pigswill at a farm in Northumberland where the current outbreak began.