The European Union on Monday confirmed a ban on all live animals, fresh meat and milk products from Britain after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
"No live animals susceptible to FMD [cattle, sheep, goats and pigs], or products from these animals, can be dispatched from Great Britain. Likewise, other member states cannot send any such live animals to Great Britain," the organization said in a news release.
The ban, which applies to meat and products produced after July 15, doesn't apply to exports from Northern Ireland, said the EU.
Canada halted all imports of animals and animal products from Britain on Saturday following news of the U.K. outbreak.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown cut short his vacation Monday to tour an emergency response centre in southern England. Brown reassured farmers the government was doing all it could to halt any possible spread of the virus.
"No resources will be spared to get to the bottom of this because we know the future of farming depends on it," he said.
British investigators discovered the outbreak Friday in a herd of cows near Surrey, in southern England. The disease can be transmitted through contact between animals or on the wind.
The strain of the virus found in the outbreak has been identified as the same variety used in two nearby research laboratories that work with infectious diseases in farm animals.
Government inspectors have sealed off the two labs — one government-run and one jointly owned by drug companies Merck and Sanofi-Aventis — and are searching them.
Both labs have issued statements saying they have had no breaches of security.
A 2001 outbreak of the disease cost Britain's economy roughly $17 billion US and forced officials to kill more than six million animals.
The disease affects cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats. In rare cases, humans in close contact with an infected animal may develop rashes.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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