Friday April 27, 2001 07:15 PM

Foot-and-Mouth Disease A Potential Disaster For North Carolina

RALEIGH (WRAL) -- Foot-and-mouth disease could be a grave threat to North Carolina's agriculture industry. Farming is the state's top industry, and an outbreak would have a severe impact not just farmers but on everyone.

State Animal Response Team and Emergency Management met Friday and have a plan to protect the industry and the state, but they also admit that they may not be able to do much to counter the disease should it break out here.

Under the right conditions, the disease of cloven-hoofed animals -- cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and deer -- can be spread on the wind over an area of 40-60 miles.

An outbreak would mandate travel restrictions and could stop Interstate traffic in and through the state. An outbreak could also hinder local travel. Roads would be blocked. Getting to work, to school, or church would not be possible in the affected areas. In the United Kingdom, some farm families have not left their property in weeks.

Basic, everyday things like trips to the grocery store might be restricted, and if one did get to the store, the prices could be sharply higher: the price of products could skyrocket at an inflation of 1200 percent.

Borders would be controlled, research halted, exports frozen, and any areas suffering from an outbreak would have sharply restricted access. Additionally, since 13.3 percent of the national gross domestic product is agricultural, and 24 million Americans are employed in the agricultural sector, the economy would feel a devastating ripple effect. East Coast trucking would have to be routed around the affected areas.

Tourism is also a very big industry in North Carolina. If foot-and-mouth broke out in eastern North Carolina, the coastal tourist industry would suffer a crippling blow.

In 24 hours, the state would feel a $3 billion impact. In 48 hours, it would be $12 billion.

Reporter: Dan Wilkinson OnLine Producer: Julian King

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/120/world/Uruguay_says_foot_and_mouth_ cr:.shtml

Uruguay says foot-and-mouth crisis under control By Raul Garces, Associated Press, 4/30/2001 01:51 MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) The government's chief of staff has assured a worried Uruguay that the foot-and-mouth crisis hitting the nation's largest industry, meat production, is not out of control.

Despite the appearance of new foot-and-mouth cases each day, Chief of Staff Raul Lago said Sunday that the livestock disease is not spreading to new areas.

''New claims are coming in fast, but there are no confirmed cases in areas that have not already been affected,'' Lago said.

The outbreak in this small South American country mirrors those in that have hit Europe and nearby Argentina and Brazil. But the crisis came at the worst possible time for Uruguay, which had hoped to emerge from a two-year recession that has sent unemployment to 14.3 percent.

The meat industry is Uruguay's most important sector, generating $500 million from exports alone, about one-quarter of total exports.

Since the first case was confirmed in the western state of Soriano on the Argentine border, 29 cases have been confirmed, the daily El Pais reported.

The outbreak was the second in six months. Until last October, Uruguay had been free of the disease for a decade.

President Jorge Batlle last week cut short a visit to the United States to return to deal with the crisis. On Sunday, he put himself in charge of a new task force to fight the disease.

The day the crisis broke, Batlle was asking President Bush to extend the quota of 20,000 tons of meat that Uruguay is allowed to export to the United States each year. Instead, the United States, along with Canada, Mexico and other countries, have banned meat imports from Uruguay.

The government begun culling cattle last week. By Sunday, when officials suspended the cull because of rising criticism, 3,479 cattle had been killed.

Authorities have also begun a partial vaccination campaign estimated at costing $30 million aimed at immunizing 500,000 cattle in the affected areas.

Producers and some officials had criticized the government for conducting mass culls of animals, urging authorities instead vaccinate the country's entire herd.

Sen. Rodolfo Nin Novoa, of the leftist Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio party, demanded that the agriculture minister resign.

''It is useless to apply these policies because even if we end up as a country free of foot-and-mouth, we will also be a country free of cattle,'' Novoa said.

Lawmakers have called on Argentina to compensate Uruguay for the crisis, which they say was a result of their neighbor's handling of its outbreak. Argentine officials have denied responsibility.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious disease that causes wasting in animals but does not affect humans.

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001

The Hungarian and I are checking our respective stashes, ready to bulk it up immediately, so to speak, if an outbreak of F&M should occur in NC. The projected inflation rate of 1200 per cent is is far higher than I had considered. I'd better check that coffee stash. . .

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001