London — Britain faces "a very large epidemic" of foot and mouth disease that could strike more than 4,000 sites by June according to a government-commissioned report that sent a shock wave through the country's besieged agricultural industry Friday.
With foot-and-mouth cases at 514 sites already recorded and more than 480,000 animals either slaughtered or due to be killed, the British have yet to come to grips with the fast-moving disease.
The chief government scientist David King said Britain could lose half its 63 million livestock and supported measures to speed killing of infected animals and a proposed cull of all animals within two miles of infected sites. It was unclear Friday night if the government had approved such a sweeping plan.
"In the worst case scenario, out of control means that we might even lose 50 percent of the livestock of Great Britain," King told the BBC.
One National Farmers Union regional leader, David Hill, said if the disease spirals to more than 4,000 sites the country faces "a disaster scenario."
"That is getting horrendous, that is nearly 3 million animals, affecting a massive swathe of countryside," Hill said. 'It also implies a very long tail while it burns itself out. The affect of that on the other industries, the tourist industry, the transportation industry, the cattle markets ... is just unthinkable."
The disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as pigs, sheep and cattle but rarely humans has brought Britain's agriculture industry to its knees, kept vast areas of the countryside out of bounds to tourists and hikers and clouded British Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans to hold a general election May 3.
Compiled by three teams of disease specialists for Britain's Ministry of Agriculture, the report's message was chillingly clear: create a firebreak for the illness or risk the infection becoming endemic to Britain.
Predicting that the number of places where the disease exists will "rise steeply" to as many as 70 a day in the next two weeks, the report said the epidemic "will grow fast in the next few weeks and continue for many months."
The report warned "further drastic action" was needed to bring the disease "under control," otherwise the illness "will become established in Britain." The experts called for "speedier slaughter" of infected animals and the killing of "all susceptible species around infected farms," a "combined strategy," that "could reduce the epidemic substantially."
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