大象传媒

• The worst outbreak so far was in 1967 when 400,000 animals were slaughtered.
• In 1981 a single case occurred on the Isle of Wight.
• Since 1982 Britain has been classified as free of the disease.
• The total number of confirmed cases in the UK has reached 1.928 cases.
  3,656,000 animals have been slaughtered.
  38,000 awaiting slaughter
  21,000 awaiting disposal

Day 55- April 16
Health officials and ministers met at Downing Street to discuss the possibility of a vaccination programme. The government's chief scientific advisor Professor David King recommended immunising cattle in the worst affected areas. In Northern Ireland, the Stormont Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers banned the movement of farm animals as more cases were detected in the province.

Day 53- April 14
While the government prepared to force Local authorities to use landfill sites for carcasses, the French Agriculture Minister criticised British vets as the "weak link" in the crisis. Doubts on the mass slaughter policy were voiced again, this time in the USA by Professor Fred Brown, advisor to the US Agriculture Dpt. The British Veterinary Association admitted that there were problems and complained of the bureaucratic bottlenecks in the slaughter policy.

Day 52- April 13
As the tourism industry braced itself for a disastrous Easter ministers, donned wellies to try to encourage visitors back to the countryside.

Meanwhile a group of scientists advising the government on the disease warned that the slaughter policy was still not being applied quickly enough. They supported the cull of healthy animals in farms near outbreaks, but said such animals should be killed within 48 hours and that this deadline was still not always being met.

Day 51- April 12
Tony Blair headed for Devon to inspect progress in tackling the disease. His itinerary included a lunch in a country pub to try to persuade the public that the countryside remains open despite the Foot and Mouth crisis. Meanwhile Jim Reid, Chief Executive of the UK Agricultural Supply Trades Association, expressed fears that haulage firms may have been using the same vehicles to move animal feed and to transport carcasses of animals that were infected with Foot and Mouth and BSE.

Day 50- April 11
Farmers have been blamed for spreading the disease by carrying out illegal movements of livestock. Some have even been accused of deliberately infecting their animals. David Hill, NFU chairman in Devon, defended moving livestock on welfare grounds.
He was criticised by another NFU official, David Maughan - chairman of the NFU livestock committe for Durham and Northumberland - who argued that restrictions had to be maintained. David Maughan also predicted that the demise of small farms would be hastened by the foot and mouth epedemic.