British ambassador talks about Foot-And-Mouth Disease in the UK
Regional-Syria-UK, Agriculture, 4/3/2001

" The British Government and British Prime Minister, in particular are very anxious that international opinion should be fully aware of the fact about the Foot-And-Mouth ( FMD) outbreak in the UK ," said the British ambassador to Syria Mr. Henry George Hogger in a statement to Arabic News. He added that press reports from the UK have given a misleading impression about the extent to which the disease is affecting tourists, and other leisure activities.

He added the FMD outbreak is serious in particular in two badly affected areas in the South-West and North ÐWest of the country. Major effort is being put to containing and eradicating the diseases in these and other areas.

However, three areas are particularly badly affected by FMD: Devon in South-west England, Cumbria in Northwest England, and Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland.

On ways to eradicate the disease, the ambassador said that the main method being used is the slaughter of animals within and around the affected areas. He added that so far, some 500,000 sheep, cows and other animals have been slaughtered. This is less than 1% of the national herd and slightly less than the quantity of animals normally slaughtered in one week for food.

He explained that there may have to be a larger program of slaughter but even so, the impression, burning from end to end with animals piles is completely false.

He continued: " the important message we want to convey to the Syrian people is that there is no reason to change their plans to visit Britain." And the main reason for saying this are: the restrictions enforced affected rural area should not seriously affect the enjoyment of the British countryside; The FMD can not affect humans; and the restrictions enforced relate purely to the ability of humans to spread the disease to their animals.

Ambassador Hogger noted that British government figures show that a relatively small proportion of leisure activity in Britain ( only 20%) takes place in the countryside and that the majority of tourist attraction for example on London and other cities are completely unaffected by the disease.

On the impact of the FMD on the visits of Syrians to the UK, Ambassador Hogger said: " I am very glad to see that Syrian visitors are apparently undeterred from visiting Britain by the press reports on the disease," noting " Our visa statistics show that our Syrian friends continue to visit in healthy number and I am very anxious to encourage them to continue doing so." He said as Tony Blair has said: " Britain remains very much " open for business ."

Nevertheless, this outbreak of FMD is the first in UK since 1967. It is not clear where or how the outbreak occurred, but the British authorities are investigating possible illegal activity. The number of case reported on 1 April stands at 891.

Previous Stories:
  FAO's director general arrived in Damascus   (3/22/2001)
  Mouth and foot disease in the Arab states   (3/20/2001)
  5th Arab dairy products conference and First Arab and international special exhibition of dairy products   (1/31/2001)
  Damascus bans import of live animals and meat   (10/5/2000)

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