Irish calves caused Dutch outbreak

Irish calves, which became infected with foot-and-mouth while in France, were responsible for the potentially devastating outbreak of the disease in the Netherlands, it has emerged.

The consignment of 230 calves, shipped from Ireland to France on February 22nd, spent a night in "lairage" at a livestock holding farm in the French department of Mayenne, where sheep from Britain carrying the foot-and-mouth virus were also kept.

Three of the Dutch farms where they were later transported have fallen victim to the foot-and-mouth outbreak, the worst for 35 years in Holland. Animals at a further five locations are almost certainly infected, according to Dutch veterinary experts. But official confirmation may not come for some days yet.

Despite a raft of stringent measures to contain the outbreaks in the Netherlands, three farms in the eastern part of the country now have foot-and-mouth disease and 20,000 animals have been destroyed or will be killed in the next day or so.

With export and import bans in place at an estimated cost of 1.5 billion guilders in lost meat and dairy product sales and severe restrictions of movement throughout the country, an atmosphere of crisis has taken hold.

Supermarkets were almost sold out of milk and milk products as consumers rushed to stock up following a 72-hour ban on the movement of milk, which may be extended due to the fresh outbreaks.

Dutch vets have called on the EU to suspend the ban on foot-and-mouth vaccination to allow for emergency inoculation of suspected animals to reduce the spread of the disease.

Farmers in the province of Brabant, where three new farms yesterday showed all the signs of contamination, are threatening to blockade motorways and roads unless the ban on emergency vaccination is scrapped.

The Dutch government wants an immediate relaxation of the vaccination ban. "I believe other EU countries hit by the disease will back our argument; we are in an emergency scenario and many people fail to see why this ban cannot be lifted in these circumstances," the Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, said last night.

More than 500,000 foot-and-mouth vaccines have been prepared. "We are in a war situation but we have no weapons to fight the war," a veterinary surgeon, Mr Anton Plaisier, said.

There is also increasing friction between the Netherlands and Brussels over the disposal of dead animals. The EU has told Dutch officials that carcasses must be burnt and disposed of as soon as possible to avoid a health risk.