DATE=3/19/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BRITAIN / HOOF AND MOUTH (L O)

NUMBER=2-273895

BYLINE=TOM RIVERS

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Britain's top veterinary official says slaughtering all sheep and pigs that are near farms infected with hoof and mouth disease is the best way to curb its spread. He made the comments in Cumbria, the British county that has been hardest hit by the recent outbreak. As Tom Rivers reports, opinion in the countryside is divided about the slaughter, which could affect up to a million animals.

TEXT: The British government's proposal to slaughter thousands of apparently healthy animals is far from universally accepted, especially by farmers. The animals have been chosen for slaughter simply because they are within three kilometers of farms where hoof-and-mouth disease has been confirmed.

The disease has an incubation period of at least five days, which means its symptoms are not always readily apparent. And because the virus is highly infectious, Britain's chief veterinary officer, Jim Scudamore, says there is no alternative but to get on with the slaughter as quickly as possible.

/// SCUDAMORE ACT ///

The disease in sheep can be transient. It can be undiagnosed. It can go through a flock and no one will see it and therefore those sheep can have disease and they can spread disease but they are not necessarily apparent to the farmers. And in that case, they can act as a focus of disease without being obvious.

/// END ACT ///

But with over three-hundred farms already affected and the toll rising every day, the government's handling of the crisis is being called into question. Farmer David Stobart says more resources and better logistical planning are urgently needed.

/// STOBART ACT ///

We hear horrific tales of vets coming on to farms and not being able to get on with the job because they can not get authority from London. Please give us the authority, us farmers. We know where the disease is. We know how to cope with it. We want your cooperation.

/// END ACT ///

While some farmers with healthy-looking animals have vowed to resist the mass slaughter, others like Martin Gateskill, are now resigned to it.

/// GATESKILL ACT ///

We cannot just sit here and wait until it comes. I mean, what do you do? Put your head in the sand and wait until it affects you?

/// END ACT ///

And it will probably affect many more farmers before it is all over. Chief Vet Jim Scudamore says that the current crisis is more severe than the last devastating epidemic that swept through Britain in 1967.

And government officials now concede that the eradication of hoof-and-mouth in Britain will at a minimum - takes months to complete. (Signed)

NEB/TR/KL/KBK