NEW FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE OUTBREAK IN BRITAIN

EU extends ban on British meat and dairy exports
Wed Aug 8, 2007 6:04PM BST
By Darren Ennis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will continue a ban on all British fresh meat, milk and live animal exports because of the country's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

"EU experts decided to continue to define the high risk area as Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland," a spokesman for the EU executive said.

He said although the ban will formally remain in place until August 25, the situation will be reviewed at a meeting on August 23.

Wednesday's decision at an emergency meeting of EU veterinary experts followed Monday's ban on all meat, dairy and livestock exports from Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland.

"It was confirmed that meat from Northern Ireland, which is outside the high risk zone, will be allowed to transit through Great Britain, so long as the necessary precautionary measures are adhered to," the Commission said in a statement.

The statement added that the British authorities "provided the Commission and member states with an update on the investigations being carried out into the source of the outbreak," but did not give details of the information shared.

Government inspectors say there is a "strong probability" the disease came from laboratories in Surrey close to farms where cattle were infected.

The unexpected outbreak is an unwelcome reminder of when the highly contagious viral sickness devastated British farming back in 2001, when more than six million animals were slaughtered -- many of them burned on huge bonfires.

British cattle and beef exports in 2006 were worth more than 100 million pounds ($202.9 million), according to Britain's Meat and Livestock Commission.

Sheep and sheep meat exports were valued at almost 250 million pounds, with France taking 70 percent.

Pigs and pork exports were put at around 175 million pounds, with 60 percent going to EU countries. Germany and the Netherlands were the main markets.

Several non-EU countries have blocked imports of meat or animals coming from Britain, or have said they will do so.

Japan and South Korea have temporarily halted pork imports from Britain, while the United States -- which already restricts UK imports of cattle and sheep due to other health scares -- has said it will ban imports of pork and pork products. Russia has also banned some imports of live animals from Britain.

Experts surprised diseases don't escape from labs more often
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 9, 2007
LONDON: Foot and mouth disease is so easily spread ?- and such a threat to farm economies ?- that the United States won't allow researchers to work with the virus on the mainland. But in Britain, a lab making foot and mouth vaccines was located near herds of cows, and may have been the cause of a new outbreak.
Foot-and-mouth disease does not typically infect humans, but its appearance among farm animals can have a swift and possibly far-reaching economic impact ?- several countries, including the United States, have banned imports of British livestock and Britain has voluntarily suspended exports of livestock, meat and milk products and destroyed more than 100 cows since the outbreak was spotted last week.

Britain's health and safety agency says there was a "strong probability" the outbreak originated at the Pirbright laboratory southwest of London and was spread by human movement. The laboratory houses both a government Institute for Animal Health research center and a private company that makes vaccines.

Lab accidents have occurred resulting in human cases of everything from meningitis to Ebola, but are rare and most are self-contained. Still, diseases that can kill humans have made it out of labs.

"With the amount of virus there is in laboratories around the world, I'm surprised that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often," said Dr. Juan Lubroth, head of infectious diseases at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Foot and mouth disease is the most contagious disease among mammals. In the U.S., which has been free of foot and mouth disease since 1929, it is illegal for anyone to possess the virus outside of a single research laboratory on Plum Island, New York. Germany employs the same policy. Some experts think that by restricting the virus' use to an island, even in the event of an outbreak, it would be self-contained.

But others say an island isn't necessarily the answer.

"With today's technology, you can do very safe work without having to be on an island," Lubroth said.

In other countries like Botswana, Canada, China, Egypt, Spain, Switzerland and South Africa, the virus is regularly handled in laboratories on the mainland ?- and without major problems.

"Regardless of whether the virus is on an island or on the mainland, it all comes down to respecting the proper biosecurity measures," said Dr. Andrea Morgan, an associate deputy administrator in the veterinary services department at the United States' Department of Agriculture.

According to a 2002 government review, parts of the research center suspected in the British outbreak were deemed to be "shabby," though no biosecurity concerns were raised.
The National Farmers' Union has for years expressed concern the center was potentially vulnerable to a lab accident. Plans are currently in place to rebuild the center by 2011, at a cost of 121 million pounds (US$245 million, €178 million).

The drug company being investigated as a possible source of the hoof and mouth outbreak insisted there had been no violation of its biosecurity procedures. "To date, we have not been able to establish any evidence that the virus may have been transported out of our center by humans," said vaccine-maker Merial Animal Health ?- the British arm of U.S.-French Merial Ltd.

Experts thought a laboratory connection was likely.

"It seems a little bit too coincidental that the strain of the foot and mouth virus causing the outbreak was the same one being used in a laboratory five miles away," said Dr. Freda Scott-Park, immediate past president of the British Veterinary Association.

"This would not be the first time that we've had an event linked to a virus escaping from a lab," said Dr. Bernard Vallat, director-general of the World Organization for Animal Health, adding that Britain's rapid response to the outbreak should ensure that it is properly contained.

Though agencies like FAO, the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health make recommendations for how countries should handle dangerous viruses and bacteria, they are just that: recommendations.

The World Organization for Animal Health says foot and mouth warrants the highest containment level possible. Among its recommendations: That sewage is properly treated to ensure that infectious material is destroyed, and that staff shower and change clothes before leaving the premises. Experts also recommend that labs working with hoof and mouth virus be isolated from animals that could be infected.

Concerns about biosafety were triggered after three laboratory-related outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Singapore, Taiwan and China in 2003-2004. In Singapore and Taiwan, lab workers inadvertently infected themselves. That was also the case in China, except that there the infection spread from two lab workers to seven family members and contacts outside the lab.

In 2005, scientists worldwide scrambled to avert a possible global flu outbreak by destroying samples of the 1957 flu pandemic virus that were accidentally sent to nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries.

Though WHO says that many laboratory practices have improved since the SARS mini-outbreaks, much remains to be done.

"We can try to mitigate the risk, but zero risk is probably one of things we can never achieve," said Dr. Nicoletta Previsani, project leader of WHO's global biosafety and biosecurity program.

"It's like when you work in your own kitchen preparing dinner," Previsani said. "You do your best, but sometimes you still cut yourself with a knife."