Experts assess foot-and-mouth impact

Experts strongly supported the UK slaughter policy

From BBC Science Correspondent, Christine McGourty, in Paris

Experts in foot-and-mouth disease from around the world have been meeting in Paris at the start of a two-day emergency meeting called to discuss the repercussions of the UK epidemic.

They are expected to announce new measures to tackle the disease and recommend ways of preventing further outbreaks in future.

There was a distinct air of gloom among delegates on the first day of the conference, being held at the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), the independent body that monitors animal diseases around the world.

The organisation also coordinates research and examines regulations on international trade in animals and animal products.

Disease hotspots

Scientists had thought the disease was on the decline worldwide, but it has reappeared recently not just in Europe, but in parts of South America and Asia which had been free of it for many years.

There was strong support though for the slaughter policy being pursued in the UK.

Strict measures remain in force across Europe

Yves Cheneau, head of animal health at the United Nations Food and Agriculture organisation, said many countries in Europe used to vaccinate against foot-and-mouth - including France, Germany and Belgium.

But when the disease was brought under control, this was phased out because repeat vaccination to combat the disease was time-consuming and expensive.

For the last 10 years, Europe's policy not to vaccinate had been "extremely successful" he said.

Mr Cheneau said: "We should not forget that between 1990 and the upsurge in the UK we had four, five, six outbreaks which were all controlled.

"One in Italy, two in Greece, three in Bulgaria, one in Albania - and we got rid of these outbreaks and at a very low cost," he said.

Vaccination is however, considered a useful measure in countries where the disease is endemic.

Pigswill ban

It is expected that the meeting will recommend more effort is put into tackling the disease in these areas, either with financial help or provision of advice on vaccination.

It is likely the conference will also recommend some immediate low-cost measures to prevent repeats of the UK epidemic elsewhere in the world, including a ban on the use of pigswill.

Hundreds of thousands of UK animals have be culled

The UK epidemic is thought to have begun when illegally imported meat that was infected with the foot-and-mouth virus was fed to pigs.

The UK Ministry of Agriculture has now announced a ban on its use.

Mr Cheneau said he wanted a global ban on pigswill and on the practice of feeding waste food from airline meals to animals.

This would be a cheap and simple way of tackling the disease, he said.

"Why should we use these things? It is ridiculous in front of the cost of such an outbreak."

Any proposals from the conference will go for approval to the full conference of the OIE, which meets in Paris at the end of May.

The recommendations are not binding on member governments, but are often adopted nonetheless.

The OIE director general, Bernard Vallat, said the conference would also consider approval of a new test to distinguish between antibodies produced in animals by vaccination and those produced in an animal that has been exposed to the foot-and-mouth virus.

The inability to distinguish between the two is one reason for opposition to vaccination at the moment.

But Mr Vallat said it would be one to two years before the test was ready for widespread use.

He also called for extra resources to be put into state veterinary resources around the world to improve the detection and surveillance of diseases such as foot-and-mouth.