Viewpoints The origins of the UK Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic in 2001 | The origins of the UK Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic in 2001 |
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21 June 2002 The paper identified the type of F&M virus found in UK, Ireland, Netherlands, France, and South Africa was the Type O Pan-Asia strain. It also said that 'legal imported (meat) have not taken place from any country where the Type O, PanAsia strain of FMD virus occurs apart from South Africa. It is highly improbable that disease was imported with South African meat and the information available on imports from South Africa would support this view.' The report said 'it will never be possible to determine the exact route by which the virus entered the country. Infected meat or meat products imported as "personal imports" are a possibility but it is more likely that most will be consumed or discarded as domestic waste and not find their way into animals.' However, 'Illegal shipments on a commercial scale are more likely to be intended for wholesale outlets or sale to restaurants or canteens. These are more likely to be refrigerated and illegally described as food or dried, cured or salted and presented as non-food imports. This could increases the chance of the virus getting into catering waste which if not properly cooked before feeding to livestock could reach pigs in sufficient quantities to cause disease.' On 5 April 2001 a team from DEFRA visited a warehouse in Northumberland. They found large quantity of foodstuffs originating from China or Hong Kong and among it were 24 baskets containing dried pigs legs. There were Chinese characters on the legs, which indicated that they were from the province of Zhejiang in China. They submitted the pig legs to IAH Pirbright for virus testing but no OIE list A viruses were found. A wide range of tests were done included feeding material to pigs under experimental conditions. In the report, there is no mention of the virus originating from the Far East, although one may deduce that the Type O, Pan-Asia strain of F&M virus is from Asia. Equally it could have been illegally import from South Africa where such strain of F&M virus exist, and had imported to UK.
The full text of the report is available at: |
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