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Saturday Morning News

Deadly Disease Infects British Livestock

Aired March 3, 2001 - 9:01 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: But our top story this hour is a country in crisis. The United Kingdom is dealing with an ugly- sounding virus called foot and mouth disease. It comes from the farm, but its impact is reaching into villages, towns, and cities.

CNN's Jennifer Eccleston is live in London. Jennifer, I understand there's concern the disease may have spread beyond the borders of Great Britain.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Miles, fears now that foot and mouth disease has crossed the English Channel. A suspected case of the disease now in Belgium. It's on a pig farm, and pigs from that farm came from the United Kingdom. Pigs started to show signs of foot and mouth not too long ago. As a result, the stock was slaughtered, blood tests now being sent to the ministry of agriculture there to see whether or not Europe has its first confirmed case of this highly infectious disease.

Here in Britain now, there are over 40 cases of foot and mouth disease covering the length and the breadth of the nation. This is a highly infectious and destructive disease which is -- which kills -- or which rather infects cattle, pigs, sheep, deer. It can travel through the air, it can travel on people's clothing, it can also travel on the soles of shoes.

Now, officials say the best way to contain the virus is to slaughter all infected animals and to incinerate their carcasses. That grim task is actually taking place in farms across the United Kingdom, affecting tens of thousands of livestock.

Now, as a result, Britain's countryside is under virtual quarantine, and as it is the weekend here, today officials are asking the public to once again stay away from rural areas. And there's a good reason for this. As the map indicates here, across the country national parks, zoos, and wildlife reserves are off limits to the public. Some country houses and hotels have shut their doors to visitors.

Some sporting events have been canceled, including rugby matches and horse and dog racing. And in many farming communities, schools will remain closed, and there are restrictions on travel within those communities.

All this in an effort to contain this highly contagious disease -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much. That's Jennifer Eccleston.

And contagious to animals only, we should underscore.

The U.S. is guarding against the spread of foot and mouth disease. British meat imports have been stopped, and USDA inspectors are checking travelers from Britain. And as we said, humans can't catch the disease, but they can spread it, and some travelers arriving from Britain are being required to have their shoes disinfected.

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