By CHRIS FONTAINE, Associated Press
LONDON
- Ireland called off its biggest St. Patrick's Day parade and Scotland quarantined
its most famous sheep - Dolly, the clone - as foot-and-mouth disease spread across
the United Kingdom.
Britain and Ireland took increasingly severe measures
Thursday to contain the livestock virus as agriculture officials confirmed six
new cases, including the first in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The total areas
infected stood at 32.
In the latest round of cancellations and curtailments,
organizers of St. Patrick's Day festivities in Dublin headed a government plea
and called off the country's biggest annual event - a parade through the capital's
streets that was expected to draw 500,000 spectators.
The cancellation
came late Thursday after an emergency meeting of the festival committee. Spokeswoman
Maria Moynihan had earlier lamented that "a cancellation would leave an enormous
gap" in the holiday.
The farming-intensive Irish Republic, desperate to
avoid the disease, also called off all weekend sporting events. And Britain's
biggest dog show, Crufts, was canceled by the outbreak.
Foot-and-mouth
- which sickens only cloven-hoofed creatures like pigs, cattle and sheep but can
be spread by just about anything that moves - hasn't crossed the border into the
republic, but cases turned up at a farm along the frontier, prompting fears that
it would soon spread south.
Irish police on Friday sealed off a farm in
County Louth, about 20 miles south of the border with Northern Ireland. Officials
said they were concerned that sheep at the farm had been in contact with animals
at the farm in Northern Ireland where foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed on
Thursday.
With the virus already confirmed at two locations in Scotland,
the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh quarantined Dolly the sheep, the first cloned
mammal, and closed its doors to visitors.
Cloned animals are believed
to be more susceptible to disease, but institute professor Ian Wilmut said Thursday
the precautions for Dolly were not much different from those taken by livestock
farmers.
A weeklong ban on movement of livestock within Britain began
to affect supermarkets Thursday as major chain Asda said one of its largest northern
stores had run out of pork and lamb.
Amid fears that the disease would
spread to continental Europe - thousands of British-exported animals have been
destroyed in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, although no cases have
yet been found - human visitors from Britain were beginning to feel a bit unwelcome
as well.
On Thursday, Portugal announced that anyone arriving from the
United Kingdom would have to dip their shoes in disinfectant. In French ports,
authorities sprayed the tires of arriving trucks with disinfectant. In Cyprus,
passengers arriving from Britain had to walk over a carpet treated with disinfectants.
China banned imports of British cattle and other cloven-footed animals
on Friday.
Fearful even of uneaten sandwiches, the British government
reminded people leaving the country that a blanket ban on exporting meat or milk
applies to personal travelers as well.
In New Zealand, a woman who returned
home from Britain without telling customs staff that she had visited a Scottish
farm was facing possible criminal charges Friday.
The woman, Jenny Wood,
is being questioned over an alleged false declaration on a quarantine questionnaire
that asks, among other things, whether people entering New Zealand have visited
a farm in the last 30 days. |
