United Kingdom makes worldwide plea for vets

As the Foot and Mouth crisis spirals out of control in the UK, the Agriculture Minister, Nicolas Brown, has made a worldwide appeal for vets to go to help the British authorities. With tens of cases breaking out every day, the government is struggling to keep the crisis in manageable proportions. As the source of the disease is pinpointed, there comes another horrifying revelation that pigs are fed on scraps from restaurants, schools and universities. While it is natural for a pig to be fed on the scraps left over from household meals, to perform this practice on an industrial scale seems to be inviting disaster. It is suspected that this epidemic can be traced back to the left-over food from a Chinese restaurant in the north of the UK which was importing meat illegally from a source in the Middle East or Far East. The origin of the meat is the Far East. It is believed that the disease entered the animal food chain after pigs, infected with the disease after eating the swill made with the illegally imported meat, passed it on to sheep, in which it incubated for three weeks before the first symptoms appeared. By then the disease had spread all over the country, as sheep moved from trader to trader. The practice of importing illegal meat raises doubts as to the quality of the meals in the restaurants which operate in this way. The act of collecting vast quantities of swill from Chinese restaurants and feeding it to pigs makes the mind boggle.Since when has the staple diet of a pig been sweet and sour pork?

JOHN ASHTEAD PRAVDA.RU LONDON