Britain Hit by Another Foot-and-Mouth Disease Scare (2/2)

The United States and Japan have banned British pigs and pork products. Cabinet Minister Ed Miliband expressed sympathy for Britain's farmers.

"That is automaticallyimposed as a result of the finding of foot-and-mouth disease, that is obviously very worrying for many farmers in this country and obviously our thoughts are with them today."

Foot-and-mouth disease affects animals with cloven hooves, such as cattle, pigs, deer, goats and sheep. An investigation into the specificstrain of the disease has been launched to determine its origin.

Microbiologist Hugh Pennington says learning that quickly is absolutely crucial.

"Has this virus seeded itself anywhere in the country for example? It would be very important to try to find out where the virus has come from,there are lots of different ways through which that can be done, for example fingerprinting the virus to find out whether it is a South American virus or a virus from Asia for example."

Mr. Brown has promised a major effort to fight the spread of the disease. Given the incubation period of the virus, it should be known within the next week whether efforts to isolate it have been successful.