Britain's approach to thefoot-and-mouth crisis was under fire today after thegovernment's chief scientist said the disease was "out of control".
With 514 infected sites and counting in Britain and a handful ofcases in Ireland, France and the Netherlands, the disease alsoappeared to not be responding to efforts to eradicate it.
Assurances from the British government that the virus was undercontrol were looking hollow after chief scientistProfessor David King contradicted ministers on the seriousness ofthe situation.
He said the programme of slaughter was too slow and that if itwas not speeded up immediately, half of the country's 62 millionfarm animals would have to slaughtered within months.
Farmers have already complained that it can take up to nine daysbetween foot-and-mouth being diagnosed and the infected animalsbeing slaughtered, during which interval the disease can spreadfurther.
"It's out of control, it's very serious," ProfessorKing said.
"If we keep the present time between report and slaughter thenwe will have an outbreak which will quite possibly go over the wholeof Great Britain and will lead to the loss of perhaps half ofBritian's livestock."
But hiscomments were at odds with the view of agricultureminister Mr Nick Brown, who insisted: "It is not slipping out of control."
He said theagriculture ministry would bemassively accelerating its cull of animals, and would bring forwardplans to slaughter apparently health livestock near infected sites.
In Stockholm for a European Union summit, Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair appealed tofellow heads of state to send veterinarians to help out.
"My top priority is getting on top of this disease anderadicating it, because it is destroying farmers and the touristindustry, and helping them rebuild their lives," hesaid.
In France, ministers who had a day earlier predicted that theoutbreak there had peaked were shocked by news of a second case. The disease had previously been confined to one case on a farmin the Mayenne region, in the northwest of the country.
Authorities placed the farm under quarantine, ordered theimmediate cull of the infected animals and said localdisease-control measures would be extended nationwide as aprecaution.
AFP