EU bans British meat, livestock amid foot and mouth outbreak*

BRUSSELS (AFP) - - The European Commission on Monday announced an
EU-wide import ban on meat and livestock from the British mainland
following the outbreak there of foot and mouth disease.

The ban covers fresh meat as well as live cattle, pigs, sheep and goats
and milk products, said Philip Tod, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner
Markos Kyrpianou.

London is also responsible for ensuring that the operators of ports out
of Britain put in place measures to disinfect the tyres of road vehicles
departing from its shores, Tod added.

Tod said that in agreement with the British authorities the whole of
Britain except Northern Ireland would be considered a "high-risk area"
where the ban applies.

"The main element will be the establishment of a high-risk area where
cattle and pigs and sheep and goats cannot be exported to other member
states nor can fresh meat or milk products," he said.

The move "will essentially confirm measures in place since Friday," he
added.

Speaking in Cyprus, Kyprianou called the outbreak an "isolated
incident", firming suspicions that the virus leaked on to a Surrey farm
in southern England from a nearby research centre.

"The European Commission regards the issue as an isolated incident as it
appears that the virus did not occur naturally, but was a leak from a
specific vaccine-processing institute, and has not spread," he told
reporters.

"We do not see any danger for the rest of Europe," the Cypriot Kyprianou
said, speaking in Greek.

Tod said Kyprianou had spoken Friday to British Environment Secretary
Hilary Benn and assured him that the EU's aim was to "regionalise" the
export ban as soon as possible so as to minimise the effects on trade.

The EU's decision will be reviewed at a meeting of the bloc's veterinary
experts group on Wednesday, Tod said.

That meeting could decide to "modify high risk and low risk areas"
meaning that a smaller area around the outbreak could be subject to a
continued total export ban while lesser measures could be imposed elsewhere.

In order to reduce the economic impact of this outbreak, the EU also set
out a list of "safe products" which may still be exported.

These include animal products produced before July 15, those processed
in a way which would inactivate any possible virus (such as heat
treatment), and those which were manufactured in Britain but derived
from animals reared outside its territory.

Horses are exempt from the ban but must travel with a health certificate.

Tod added that the EU's executive arm was satisfied that Britain had
acted swiftly following the outbreak of the potentially devastating
disease south of London.

The European Commission said that all EU regulations were being applied
in Britain, including culling animals in the infected premises and
establishing a three-kilometre (two-mile) protection zone around the
outbreak.

The EU action -- which has raised the spectre of the disastrous British
foot and mouth epidemic in 2001 which saw up to 10 million animals
slaughtered -- was triggered by the discovery of the highly contagious
virus in a herd of cattle last Friday.

In 2001, the disease was seen elsewhere in the EU, with 2,030 cases in
Britain but also 26 outbreaks in the Netherlands, two in France and one
in Ireland.

Tod said that the EU's veterinary fund would cover half the cost of
handling the disease outbreak.

In 2001 the EU paid a total of 465.6 million euros to member states
affected.

Overall, for the 2001 crisis the total expenditure declared by all
affected member states (France, Ireland, Netherlands, and Britain) for
compensation for slaughter and destruction of animals as well as
disinfecting of farms and equipment was about 2.7 billion euros,
according to EU figures.