World governments scrambled to build defenses on Thursday against foot-and-mouth disease that has now spread to livestock in parts of the Middle East and threatens to cripple Europe's meat industry.

Britain, where the three-week old outbreak is now an epidemic, announced a wider slaughter program, while Gulf Arab states erected barriers to halt the spread of the highly infectious disease that officials said was imported.

Ali Arab, head of the livestock department at the United Arab Emirates' Agriculture Ministry, told Reuters in Dubai that eight infected cattle had been killed and a quarantine imposed on farms where the cases had been found.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world...l-food-di.html

In Argentina, where the Farming and Food Health Agency confirmed an outbreak of the disease in Buenos Aires province on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday they had discovered two new outbreaks in the nation's cattle-ranching heartland.

Countries around the world were stepping up efforts to stay free of the disease, banning meat and grain imports from the European Union (news - web sites) and increasing checks on travelers from Europe.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/2001...ase_dc_71.html

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 03-15-2001).]