No country can consider itself free from foot-and-mouth disease, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. The rapid spread of the virus shows its ability to "infiltrate a wide geographic area and to cause epidemics in countries which have been free from the disease for many years," it said.
Countries are at risk because of "increased international trade, tourism, the movement of animal products and foodstuff", the FAO said. The strain of the virus causing the current crisis appeared in India about a decade ago, FAO virologists have confirmed.
Dr Yves Leforban, secretary of the European Commission for Foot-and-Mouth Disease, said the Pan-Asia virus - as the current strain is known - "is the cause of almost half the cases of foot-and-mouth in the world."
Meanwhile in France, tests on two suspect heifers have proved negative. France already has one confirmed outbreak of the disease.
In the United Arab Emirates, eight infected cows have been killed and a quarantine imposed on farms where they were found. In Saudi Arabia, two cases were reported.
Countries at risk should reinforce border controls, the FAO recommends. They should also develop contingency plans, including measures for destruction of carcasses and provision for emergency vaccination as a last resort.
It has called for "stricter controls on imports of all foodstuffs, including those carried by travellers, and wastes from aircraft and ships". The FAO recommends a "stamping out" policy for the disease. Ring vaccination can be used where the number of animals affected is so great that "stamping out" poses operational and public acceptance problems. Eradication should remain the target, and vaccination is not a substitute for eradication, it said.