The foot-and-mouth virus strikes back by Ana Maria Ciobanu

Officials working on the case of the foot-and-mouth virus believe it escaped from a facility dedicated to eliminating the animal disease. The laboratory considered to be responsible for this accident is a government research center and a company that makes foot-and-mouth vaccine. If we look at the full side of the glass we'll have to be glad that the virus wasn't spread by other animals and can be contained. This information isn't unfortunately 100 per cent confirmed. The agriculture department said that the particular strain of the highly infectious disease was identical to one used at the lab. The government is working on discovering the transmission mechanism and isn't ruling out any sources. British livestock, meat and milk exports have been stopped and the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs nationwide has been halted. The British have confronted before with this problem, in 2001 when carcasses of the 7 million culled cattle were burned on huge pyres. The farming industry had a lot to suffer and rural tourism was almost dead. The general elections were postponed for a month because of the tragedy back then. The virus isn't dangerous for humans although they can very rarely be affected through contact with sick animals. The foot-and-mouth virus is sensitive to stomach acid and it cannot spread to humans via consumption of infected meat.

by Ana Maria Ciobanu for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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