Environmental Graffiti

Foot and mouth disease has struck a new cattle farm in southern England, the government said on Wednesday, prompting the European Union to suspend a decision to lift its ban on British meat exports. On the 6th of September, Debbie Reynolds chief vetenary officer confirmed “we are finally free from foot and mouth disease.” How wrong she was…

A ministry statement said initial tests showed it was “likely that this is the same strain as found in the August outbreak”.

“We will not be able to confirm the full virus strain until all sequencing is completed. This is currently in progress. We do not have a timetable for when these final results will be received,” it said.

Britain suffered a crippling outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 when more than six million animals had to be culled. The outbreak hit agriculture and tourism hard, costing the economy an estimated 8.5 billion pounds ($17 billion).

“ABSOLUTE DISASTER”

The value of British sheep, beef and pig exports, live animals and meat, was more than 500 million pounds ($1 billion) in 2006. Industry experts say British exports of livestock and meat are now worth about 15 million pounds a week.

Robin Chief Executive of Truck label and festival said “It is important to remember that foot and mouth doesn’t just affect livestock farmers, but also other country-side activities such as music festivals. My festival additionally suffered from the effect of the freak flooding in July, so we had to postpone the Truck festival until the 22nd of this month. It should be going ahead as normal, fingers crossed”

Environmental Graffiti has been invited to cover the music and Truck’s environmental initiatives.

Source Reuters

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