|
BBC News
Three
new cases of foot-and-mouth disease have been confirmed
in the Netherlands, taking the total to 10 and sparking
fears that efforts to contain the disease may have failed.
The
Dutch Agriculture Ministry said the latest cases were in
and around the Oene area in Gelderland, where several of
the earlier cases were detected.
Until
last week, Dutch officials had believed their early crackdown
on the movement of animals had been enough to protect the
country.
An outbreak on the UK scale would
devastate Dutch agriculture
But the steady emergence of new cases - an average of more
than one a day over the past week - is adding to fears that
the virus is now on the loose.
One
of the three new cases, in the village of Kootwijkerbroek,
about 30km south-west of Oene, is sounding particular alarm
bells for officials.
"All
the cases are worrying, but this one in Kootwijkerbroek
even more so," a spokesman for the Dutch agriculture
ministry told Reuters news agency.
"Our
tracing tests are not yet finding relationships between
the cases," he added.
The Dutch were the first to seek - and gain - permission
to vaccinate animals around infected farms, to create a
firebreak against the infection spreading.
The
programme is already under way, but the discovery of new
cases could mean the policy has come too late to stop the
virus leapfrogging the firebreak and spreading from farm
to farm, as it has in the UK.
The
UK has now followed the Netherlands in winning EU approval
for vaccination, but has not yet begun the policy.
Foot-and-mouth
cases
UK - more than 740
Netherlands - eight
France - two
Ireland - one
The UK Government has continued to insist that its mass
burning of slaughtered animals is the answer - a policy
which Dutch ministers criticised early on.
In France,
where two cases have been confirmed, an uneasy waiting game
is still going on amid hopes that the virus has been stopped
in its tracks.
Ireland,
which has one confirmed case, had some good news on Thursday,
when several suspected cases were given the all-clear.
Vaccination
facts
Not 100% reliable
10 days to take effect
May not be fully effective for three weeks
Repeat injections required
The
UK's total has passed 740 cases and is still rising daily.
The
EU experts' panel is currently debating vaccination requests
from zoos which fear the disease could spread to grazing
animals such as giraffes, antelope, camels or elephants.
Brussels
is seeking the advice of the World Organisation for Animal
Health, which determines the foot-and-mouth status of its
157 members.
|
