Second Outbreak of FMD Found in France

France on Friday extended measures taken to stop foot-and-mouth disease to a nationwide scale after a second outbreak of the illness was discovered on a farm just outside the capital.

The new outbreak was found at a cattle and sheep farm in the Seine-et-Marne department, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Paris, the agriculture ministry announced late Friday.

Local officials said the 100 cattle and 200 sheep on the farm, which was not named, were to be destroyed as soon as possible, perhaps beginning Friday evening.

Authorities placed the farm and a three-kilometer radius around it under quarantine, and police set up outposts 10 kilometers away to monitor the movement of livestock in the region.

The first outbreak of the highly contagious animal illness was discovered in the western department of Mayenne on March 13.

As a precautionary step, Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany said measures being taken against the spread of foot-and-mouth, such as a ban on exports of meat and untreated dairy products, would be extended nationwide.

On Thursday, Glavany said he was becoming more confident with each passing day that a "way out" of the foot-and-mouth crisis would be found.

Earlier on Friday, the authorities said that tests carried out on 48 piglets destroyed on March 14 at Baroche-Gondouin, near where the first outbreak was found, had proved negative.

A further 137 calves that had been imported from the Netherlands on February 21 were also destroyed as a preventative measure.

Meanwhile, France said it would send 14 veterinarians to Britain on Monday following an appeal for help in combating foot-and-mouth disease by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"The French government, which wants to show solidarity with the British government, has decided to respond to the appeal by the authorities," the ministry said in a statement.

Blair said on Thursday that he planned to call for help from Britain's European partners because the 1,100 vets already mobilized were unable to cope with the increasing number of outbreaks.






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