DATE=3/26/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BRITAIN / HOOF AND MOUTH (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-274160

BYLINE=TOM RIVERS

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: British soldiers are digging pits to prepare for the mass burial of hundreds of thousands of animals slaughtered in the fight against hoof-and-mouth disease. Six weeks after the initial outbreak, the disease has now spread to over 600 farms in Britain. Tom Rivers in London reports on a new method of combating the growing crisis.

TEXT: Given the frightening scale of the outbreak, the British army is now getting more actively involved. At an abandoned airfield (at Great Orton) in northern England, teams of soldiers are preparing for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of sheep carcasses and live animals that will be slaughtered on site once the operation is in full swing.

Using heavy earth-moving equipment, the first trenches have been cut into the soil, four meters deep. Once the area has been disinfected, sealed truckloads of animals will arrive around the clock, as the army tries to catch up with a growing backlog of infected sheep and pigs that need to be disposed of. The military coordinator at the site, Major Guy Richardson, says it is essential that the burials begin soon.

/// RICHARDSON ACT ///

Our hearts go out to the farmers, very much so, and indeed the local community, but we need to be robust and move forward as quick as we can to get the solution sorted.

/// END ACT ///

The mass burial site is part of the overall strategy of creating well-defined animalfree zones around areas of high infection, to break the chain of disease transmission.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown says the army is being used now due to the sheer scale of the problem.

/// BROWN ACT ///

We have already disposed of more animals in this disease outbreak than in the entirety of the 1967 outbreak, which was the last major outbreak in this country.

/// END ACT ///

If this mass disposal in the north proves to be successful, it will likely be adopted in other hard-hit counties (like Devon in southwestern England).

Leading scientists say the disease may not peak until June, and it will take months after that before it can be eradicated. (Signed)

NEB/TR/KL/WTW