Word: fmd
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Dates: during 2007-2007
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When a new outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD) was confirmed on a cattle farm in Surrey, southern England, in early August, Britain braced for the worst. In 2001, the last time the U.K. was hit by this highly contagious illness affecting cloven-hoofed animals, it led to the slaughter and incineration of over 6.5 million animals and cost the country $17 billion. This time, the containment zones that were set up around the affected area right after the first case was reported (a move that took days last time) and a ban on the movement of livestock across...
...While quarantine has improved, prevention has not. How did the cows catch the virus in the first place? A government investigation is focusing on two biological research labs at the Pirbright complex, 3 miles (4.8 km) from where this outbreak first appeared. The same strain of FMD found in Surrey's infected cattle is used by the state-run Institute for Animal Health and by the private firm Merial for research and vaccine making...
...report this afternoon into biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being at the center of the cases was inconclusive. Health officials believe the nearby Pirbright research lab - home to a government research center and a company that makes FMD vaccines - is the source because the strain of the virus identified in the sickened cattle currently exists only in research centers...
...Nonetheless, the British government yesterday ordered 300,000 doses of FMD vaccine from Merial in case of a wider outbreak, leading to calls in the national press for the private company to be stripped of profits form the sale should it be confirmed as the source of the infection. FMD causes blistering and fevers in cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats, but rarely infects humans. While rarely fatal, it decimates the health of livestock, reducing weight and milk yield...
...News of the second outbreak stoked fears among local farmers over a repeat of the FMD outbreak of 2001, which devastated British farming and hit tourism, costing the economy an estimated $17 billion. Lawrence Mathews, the owner of the land where the second outbreak emerged told BBC radio: "We were starting to think that maybe this virus has been contained and maybe we'd get back to normality within the next few weeks...