Free Republic

Bioterrorism threat said real Oct 17, 2002 12:00 PM, Harry Cline There are 7,000 unaccounted for former Soviet Union biological warfare scientists and technicians in the world today. Before 9/11/01, that fact would be filed away under "So what...just left over Cold War paranoia." Now, though, that fact is cause for considerable concern to Americans, and a panel of experts on bioterrorism and radical environmental groups speaking at the recent California Plant Health Association and CropLife America joint annual convention in Palm Desert, Calif., only served to heighten that concern when they addressed biological warfare issues facing America today. According...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak Skeptical Democrats in Congress are demanding to see internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision. An epidemic of the disease, foot and mouth, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock industry. One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and federal farm...

A biosecurity failure at a research laboratory has been pinpointed as the likeliest source of Britain's foot and mouth outbreak. An inquiry by scientists is centring on fears that the virus escaped from the Pirbright laboratory site in Surrey, the only centre licensed to work with the foot and mouth virus. It is feared that the virus, carried on the wind, infected cattle grazing in a field three miles away. A private pharmaceuticals company, Merial Animal Health, which has been developing a foot and mouth vaccine, shares the Pirbright site with the government-funded Institute for Animal Health, which holds 5,000...

Foot-and-mouth outbreak confirmed in N. Korea: official SEOUL, March, 8 (Yonhap) -- The global animal health body has confirmed a foot-and-mouth outbreak in North Korea and South Korea has boosted quarantine steps at the border, a Seoul official said Thursday. "The outbreak was first reported at a farm near Pyongyang on Feb. 7, affecting more than 2,000 cows and pigs," said Kim Chang-seob, the chief veterinary officer at the Agriculture Ministry. "The World Organization for Animal Health confirmed the outbreak as of Wednesday." It is the first time that the health body confirmed a foot-and-mouth case in the communist country,...

When the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease was discovered in December 2003, then-Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman pledged to hasten creation of a national identification system for tracing livestock quickly during a disease outbreak. She said she asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief information officer "to make it his top priority." Today, more than two years later, the U.S. still has no national ID system for most farm animals, including chickens and beef cattle. The USDA, which has been discussing a system for nearly a decade -- and has spent $84.7 million to develop it -- now...

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's agriculture minister resigned on Tuesday, alleging that a proposed free trade deal with the United States could expose the country to bird flu, foot and mouth disease and mad cow disease. Laurentino Cortizo told President Martin Torrijos he feared Panama could be forced to ignore its own food health standards in a free trade deal with Washington. "It worries me enormously that a relaxing of the sanitary measures could put the health and lives of Panamanians at risk," he said in his resignation letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. "Have you analyzed...

China working to contain bird flu, foot-and-mouth disease Fri May 27, 1:22 PM ET BEIJING (AFP) - China was battling two separate disease outbreaks after more than 1,000 migratory birds died from bird flu and thousands of cattle were culled following a foot-and-mouth outbreak. The number of birds found dead from the H5N1 strain of avian flu is far higher than previously acknowledged. "Up to May 26 a total of over 1,000 birds have been found dead, including bar-headed geese, great black-headed gulls and cormorants," Jia Youling, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's veterinary bureau, said Friday at a press...

NEARLY 2000 buffalos, cows and pigs had been infected with foot and mouth disease in Vietnam's central province of Quang Nam, the agriculture ministry said today. "Foot and mouth disease has been reported in six districts, including Hoi An town, and local authorities have begun culling the infected animals," Bui Quang Anh, head of the ministry's animal health department, told AFP. So far 84 pigs have been slaughtered in a bid to contain the highly contagious disease, which first emerged in the province in December last year, according to state media. Local authorities have imposed a ban on the trade,...

Foot and mouth disease strikes World Cup host 16:40 08 May 02 NewScientist.com news service Foot and mouth disease has broken out in South Korea, four weeks before football's World Cup is due to begin there. Korean officials are feverishly trying to stamp out the disease, especially as one of the venues for the tournament - Daejeon - is in the path of the outbreak. With twelve national teams and several hundred thousand supporters due to converge on Korea at the end of May, there are fears that some could carry the virus back home, or to FMD-free Japan,...