Brussels, 03/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 October, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health agreed to make the foot-and-mouth disease fresh meat embargo from certain parts of Great Britain more flexible. Restrictions were introduced following cases of foot and mouth in the South East of the England. Under the draft decision supported by experts from member states, fresh beef and mutton exports can resume from 12 October but only for farms and operators from the parts of Great Britain which fall outside a 200km delineated area around the surveillance zone in South East England. Only restrictions on the trade in fresh meat are affected by this greater flexibility. The transport of live cattle throughout the United Kingdom to other European countries remains banned. All measures are valid until 15 November.
Outside the 200 km surveillance zone, exports of beef and sheep meats can therefore resume but only on the condition that strict health controls are applied. Therefore, 30 days before slaughter, animals used to produce this meat will have to be confined to the same farm. No new animal can be introduced to the herd 21 days before the other animals in the herd are sent to an abattoir. Once at the abattoir, the animals will have to be slaughtered immediately and submitted to foot and mouth detection tests. The meat will then have to be in quarantine for 24 hours and only sent out if the farm from whence they came is free from any suspicion. The highly contagious disease is currently contained within the county of Surrey where its presence has been confirmed in eight herds since the reappearance of the virus at the beginning of August. More than 1,800 animals have been slaughtered.
The United Kingdom has also been affected over the last ten days by the “blue tongue” virus (ovine orbivirus infection), which has already contaminated 11 animals in the east of the country. (lc)