Brussels, 22/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Friday, the European Commission is to submit a draft decision to the Standing Veterinary Committee (SVC) aimed at banning, on the one hand, all exports of cattle from the whole of Ireland, and, on the other, the dispatch of meat products and milk from County Louth, following the emergence of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Republic of Ireland. Following confirmation, on Wednesday, of two outbreaks of foot-and-mouth in the Netherlands, the Commission adopted a decision on Thursday banning, until 4 April, the export of species of live animals which are susceptible to the disease (ovine, caprine, bovine and porcine) from the country. Also banned are the dispatch of fresh meat and meat products, milk and milk products and other animal products from the provinces of Gelderland, Overisjel, Flevoland and Noord-Brabant. Vehicles used for the transport of livestock and milk have to be disinfected. Following the cull and disposal of all susceptible animals, the possibility of having recourse to emergency vaccination in a radius of one kilometer of the two outbreaks and two contact holdings, will also be examined by Friday's special meeting of the SVC.
The Netherlands said, on Thursday, that it had stepped up the ban on the movement of animals. The Dutch authorities have banned all movement of livestock throughout the national territory and blocked all movement of animal transport vehicles and certain products, such as manure. Milk collection is authorised on condition the cleaning and disinfecting orders are complied with, but banned in the areas under surveillance and potentially infected.
So as to reduce the propagation of the disease as much as possible, the Commission has provisionally adopted additional Community-wide protection measures: it is a question of; - banning the movement of live susceptible animals (bovine, ovine, caprine and porcine species and other biungulates) and their germinal products, from the Netherlands to Member States or third countries; - a ban on the dispatch of products, notably fresh meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, skins and hides and other products of animals of the same species from Gelderland, Overijsel, Flevoland and Noord-Brabant to other regions on the Netherlands, other Member states or third States, except if these goods were produced before 20 February 2001 of have been raised in a way that the risk of spreading the food-and-mouth disease virus is avoided (pasteurisation and heat-treatment of milk, heat treatment of meat products, treatment of skins and hides); - vehicles used for the transport of livestock and milk have to be disinfected. Other measures have also been taken aimed at restricting the movement of equidea.