U.S. Department of agriculture to review the meat ban on foot-and-mouth disease in Britain

Lead: the U.S Department of Agriculture said Thursday it was assessing whether to lift the ban on British meat caused by foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious disease that has been declared eradicated in the UK Jim Rogers, a spokesman for the animal and plant safety and Quarantine Service of the U.S Department of agriculture, said last week Britain formally asked the United States to lift the ban on foot-and-mouth disease U.S Department of agriculture officials are currently investigating whether the UK has successfully controlled and eradicated foot-and-mouth disease USDA officials did not specify when the investigation would end But even if the U.S Department of agriculture lifted the ban, most British meat products will continue to be rejected because of mad cow disease, and Britain is closest to other European areas where foot-and-mouth disease occurs Last week, the UK announced that it had finally got rid of foot-and-mouth disease In the battle to eliminate foot-and-mouth disease, the UK slaughtered more than 4 million livestock, farmers lost business and the government lost billions of pounds On Tuesday, the OIE, the world organization for animal health in Paris, approved the UK's application to return to the FMD Free National Alliance, which was confirmed to be free of FMD and without vaccination Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a disease that causes lameness of pigs, cattle, goats and sheep, and a sharp decrease in milk and meat production The virus is rare in humans and is easily transmitted by shoes, farm facilities and even wind The United States has not had foot-and-mouth disease since 1929 (author:) share to feed Weibo share to: