010325 EU Curbs Trade As Virus Fears Mount

Brussels - The European Union imposed tough new restrictions on livestock trading, curbing cross-border movements and suspending all livestock markets in a bid to contain Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The EU's chief veterinary officers, meeting in Brussels, also decided to extend the ban on British exports of livestock and meat by two weeks to March 27.

The foot-and-mouth crisis is in its third week since cases were detected in Britain for the first time in 20 years, raising fears of a Europe-wide outbreak.

So far the highly contagious virus, which infects pigs, sheep, cattle and goats, has been confined to the United Kingdom.

The EU vets decided the transport of animals susceptible to foot-and-mouth would only be allowed between farms and from farms to slaughterhouses. If this involved a cross-border movement, 24 hours notice will have to be given.

“There will be no animal markets for at least a week,” Sven Johansson, deputy director of Sweden's board of agriculture, said as he left the meeting, while EU officials said a two-week ban on livestock markets was likely.

France has banned exports of animals at risk, while Denmark, Belgium and Germany are testing their livestock and Asian countries have cut meat imports. Ireland has imposed tough curbs on livestock movements and even sports events.

The European Central Bank said it would switch a planned March 15 meeting in Dublin to its home base in Frankfurt.

The latest sporting casualty was the world cross-country championships, due to take place in Dublin March 24-25. The International Amateur Athletic Federation said fears of the virus spreading meant the race would now be held in Brussels.

Dartmoor Threatened

Britain's chief veterinarian earlier told the EU panel the disease, which has hit 79 sites, was expected to peak this week, an EU spokesman said.

Inside Dartmoor national park in Devon, southwest England, authorities found a second suspected case of foot-and-mouth about five miles away from the first in the area at a farm owned by Prince Charles, heir to the British throne.

The discovery has put the area, home to thousands of deer, wild ponies, cattle and sheep, on red alert for the disease.

“It would be a logistical nightmare to control it in such an area,” Ian Johnson of the National Farmers' Union said.

British supermarkets reported soaring meat sales, with shoppers stockpiling supplies.

In a bid to avert shortages, the government has announced measures that will allow farm animals from areas of the country not infected by foot-and-mouth to be taken directly to slaughterhouses under stringent conditions.

A self-imposed global export ban is costing the British meat industry $12 million a week in lost sales, according to industry estimates.

France, which at the weekend found traces of the highly contagious virus in slaughtered sheep, has already suspended the transport of all cloven-hoofed animals -- except to slaughterhouses -- for the next two weeks.

However, tests on suspect livestock in France, Denmark and Belgium have proved negative. In eastern Germany a pig showing symptoms of foot-and-mouth initially tested negative.

Authorities in France's southern Gard department said blood tests on five sheep also proved negative.

In the Netherlands, officials at the weekend culled a further 730 animals from farms known to have imported livestock from Britain.

Countryside Off Limits

Much of the British countryside remains a no-go area, with footpaths, forests and national parks off limits. Bans have hit several sports, including rugby and horse racing.

France began to follow that example by placing nine farms under quarantine inside six-mile exclusion zones. Horse-racing and showjumping events were canceled and a rugby match between France and Wales was in jeopardy.

Foot-and-mouth can spread on the wind, on the soles of people's shoes and wheels of vehicles. It causes blisters on the feet and mouths of infected animals followed by severe weight loss.

The effects of the crisis were felt as far away as Japan and South Korea, both of which restricted meat imports from Europe, and in the U.S. commodity markets.

Japan imposed a temporary ban on imports of cloven-hoofed animals and related products from Belgium and France, but lifted restrictions on Danish produce.

In South Korea, officials added possibly suspect meat from France, Germany and Denmark to a quarantine list already set up for imports from Belgium.

The moves rattled the big livestock markets in Chicago, where lean hog and pork belly futures posted record highs.

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