Industry welcomes movement plan

2 March 2001



Industry welcomes movement plan

By James Garner

BRITAINS meat industry has broadly welcomed the easing of livestock movement restrictions imposed because of foot-and-mouth disease.

A licensing scheme allowing animals to be moved off farms under strictly licensed conditions to abattoirs was announced on Friday (2 March).

Agriculture minister Nick Brown said the scheme would allow livestock movements possibly as early as Monday (5 March).

Peter Scott, director of the British Meat Federation, said the scheme was a welcome move towards the resumption of normal trading patterns.

“Abattoirs will be running out of pigmeat now and lamb during next week. But beef wont run out for a bit longer, because of the maturation process.”

But all parties involved in industry meetings with government officials maintained the first priority must be to eradicate the disease.

Jim Walker, president of the National Farmers Union of Scotland, said animals should stay on many farms because of the risk of spreading the disease.

“Movements would have to be direct from a single farm to a single abattoir.”

That view conflicts with other groups strongly in favour of using auction markets as collection points carefully monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture.

A similar method of transporting livestock was adopted during Britains last major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 1967.

Peter Kingwill, chairman of the Livestock Auctioneers Association, said the decision to move some livestock should reflect the way the countryside works.

“While pigs may be sold mainly deadweight, it is more difficult for cattle and sheep. This will mean horrendous amounts of lorries moving around the country.”

Robert Forster, chief executive of the National Beef Association, voiced concern that only the biggest abattoirs had facilities to wash and disinfect lorries.