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UK goes all out against foot-and-mouth
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BRITAIN has set up a high-level crisis management committee which will meet daily as part of stepped-up efforts to tackle the spreading foot-and-mouth epidemic, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
The Cobra crisis committee, assembled only at times of national emergency, was re-formed last week and will meet in the government Cabinet Office every day, chaired by Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, he said.
The committee last met during Britain's fuel crisis in September last year, when petrol pumps ran dry because of refinery blockades by fuel price protesters.
A new sense of urgency in the battle against the highly contagious disease has gripped British leaders since scientific advisers said the epidemic could spread with dramatic speed and half the country's livestock might have to be slaughtered.
Prime Minister Tony Blair left the European Union summit early on Saturday to put his personal stamp on efforts to tackle the crisis.
Blair flew home from Stockholm as his EU partners were still crafting a communique which expressed confidence that measures being taken would eradicate the disease, now affecting Ireland, France and the Netherlands despite frantic efforts to build a firewall against it.
The Dutch Agriculture Ministry confirmed a fourth case of foot-and-mouth on Saturday, just south of three other cases.
France reported late on Friday that it had discovered a second case on a farm near Paris.
In Britain, where the number of confirmed cases has reached 560, the government said its diagnosis, slaughter and incineration process had speeded up, after warnings that delays could cause the loss of half the nation's 62 million livestock.
The Defense Ministry said a six-strong army logistics team had moved into the Agriculture Ministry to coordinate efforts to combat the disease. Some 200 troops were deployed last week to organize the slaughter and disposal of livestock in the worst affected areas.(SD-Agencies)
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