010389 Mass Grave Awaits British Livestock

London - The British army sent in bulldozers to dig a mass grave the length of a football pitch for up to 500,000 farm animals in the latest attempt to bring a foot-and-mouth epidemic under control.

Britain now has 617 confirmed outbreaks of foot-and-mouth and has slaughtered 406,000 animals, most of which have been incinerated, the agriculture ministry said.

The virus has spread to The Netherlands and Ireland as well as to France, where authorities were Monday trying to track down animals infected by the disease. The three countries account for the eight cases in the rest of Europe.

China banned imports of Dutch and Irish livestock at risk from foot-and- mouth.

With Britain's livestock and rural tourism industries in crisis, time was running out for Prime Minister Tony Blair 's hope of holding a general election in May.

Blair must make his announcement next week if he is to go ahead with his preferred election date of May 3.

Critics say he would appear insensitive to the plight of victims of the crisis if he presses ahead with those plans without being seen to be on top of the epidemic.

Pyres of Carcasses

Since the outbreak began in Britain a month ago, pyres of animal carcasses have been burning on farms across the land.

In an attempt to speed up the disposal of dead animals, huge pits were being dug at a former air force base in northwest England, where the disease is at its worst, to bury up to 500,000 slaughtered sheep, officials said.

Blair said the fight against highly infectious foot-and-mouth was a “huge logistical operation.”

“This is like tracking a common cold in the human population,” he told parliament.

He said the priority was to reduce the gap between animals being diagnosed with the disease and being slaughtered to 24 hours.

A senior member of the opposition Conservative Party called for vaccination to help build up immunity in British flocks.

“Tourists do not want to come and see the deathly pall of smoke hanging like some painting of Dante's Inferno across the hills and valleys,” said Conservative MP John Redwood.

Blair said he was keeping the possibility of vaccination under review.

“Vaccination is not an easy solution to this problem either. I believe that most people recognize that the policy of containment, containment by culling, is the right policy, at any rate at the present time.” Agriculture Minister Nick Brown will make a statement to parliament Tuesday on a possible ban on pig swill and proposals to limit sheep trading, which have both been blamed for spreading the disease.

Europeans Nervous

European political leaders have shown they are nervous about the disease, which threatens the livelihoods of farmers, tourism operators and other businesses.

French Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany warned Sunday that foot-and-mouth could spread through France unless people across the country worked together and observed draconian government measures against the disease.

France announced Friday that a second case of the infection had been found on a farm near Paris, 10 days after the first case was located. It believes the virus jumped across country because of an illegal movement of livestock.

“I will do everything to prevent other cases, I hope that there won't be other cases. I fear that there will be other cases if people hide things from us,” Glavany said in a radio interview. The traders and farmers involved deny wrongdoing.

Blair's spokesman said the government had been forced to upgrade its response to the crisis.

“The advice at the start was that it would not accelerate as quickly as it has,” the spokesman said.

Ireland is culling thousands of animals and France has mounted huge slaughter missions to try to stamp out the disease.

In Britain, government sources have admitted they underestimated the scale of the outbreak, prompting opposition leaders to urge Blair to delay plans for a national election.

Clive Soley, chairman of the parliamentary Labor Party, said about 70% of the party's legislators favored going ahead with a May 3 poll. “There is a clear majority in favor of going for the elections on that day,” he said.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com