foot-and-mouth

Foot-and-mouth disease, which has caused thousands of head of cattle to be destroyed in England, has now spread to the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have reported finding 10 cases of the disease.

The Gulf states import most of their meat. The UAE discovered 8 imported cows with the disease and the Saudis have found two.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman says we will take every precaution to keep the disease out of the United States. The U.S., along with other countries, including Canada and Australia, have banned imports of meat from the European Union.
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The French government has lost its long battle to keep Hoof-and-mouth disease out of France. The first confirmed cases were reported there today.

France has slaughtered tens of thousands of animals that were imported from Britain before the disease was discovered there, trying to keep the disease at bay. The sick herd found today on a farm at Mayenne in northwestern France, is the first anywhere on mainland Europe to have caught the highly contagious disease.
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