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.
Inside the EU, German police are guarding normally unmanned border crossings with France, where the disease has just emerged. In Britain, piles of dead livestock are being stacked and burned on giant pyres and much of the countryside has been declared off-limits to outsiders.
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