Different disease but the same result at the border...spooky(note the date of the story)
March 19, 2003
The virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease, which has not been seen -- or allowed -- in Canada for more than 50 years, is replicating in a Manitoba laboratory.
The tiny microbe, responsible for the national disaster in the United Kingdom that saw millions of animals slaughtered in 2001, has been imported from Britain by scientists at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, a federal facility located in Winnipeg.
The scientists are growing several different strains of the virus in the centre's lab and using them to infect animals for research and to give veterinarians a first-hand look at the disease.
Officials and scientists say they are confident the highly infectious virus can be contained at the Manitoba facility, which they describe as one of the most secure labs on the planet.
Only one U.S. lab is allowed to work with the foot-and-mouth virus, and it is located on Plum Island, 10 kilometres off the Connecticut coast. U.S. rules forbid use of the virus at high-level biohazard labs on the U.S. mainland.
The Canadian government gave scientists approval to import the virus to the Winnipeg lab.
"The last thing we wanted was a trade embargo," says Dr. Paul Kitching, the centre's director.
Officials say they consider work on the virus an "essential" aspect of emergency preparedness.
"At the end of the day, Canada is the largest exporter of pigs and pig products in the world and the third-largest exporter of cattle and cattle products," say Dr. Kitching. "That would stop overnight if there were an outbreak of food-and-mouth disease. It would cost billions."
Several vials of the virus, carefully tucked in a crash-proof canister, touched down at Winnipeg International Airport last year in a cargo aircraft and were whisked to the federal lab near the city centre.
There, the viruses joined a collection of nasty pathogens including the microbes that cause Ebola and Lassa fever, deadly human diseases, and hog cholera and lumpy skin disease, which afflict animals.
March 19, 2003
The virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease, which has not been seen -- or allowed -- in Canada for more than 50 years, is replicating in a Manitoba laboratory.
The tiny microbe, responsible for the national disaster in the United Kingdom that saw millions of animals slaughtered in 2001, has been imported from Britain by scientists at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, a federal facility located in Winnipeg.
The scientists are growing several different strains of the virus in the centre's lab and using them to infect animals for research and to give veterinarians a first-hand look at the disease.
Officials and scientists say they are confident the highly infectious virus can be contained at the Manitoba facility, which they describe as one of the most secure labs on the planet.
Only one U.S. lab is allowed to work with the foot-and-mouth virus, and it is located on Plum Island, 10 kilometres off the Connecticut coast. U.S. rules forbid use of the virus at high-level biohazard labs on the U.S. mainland.
The Canadian government gave scientists approval to import the virus to the Winnipeg lab.
"The last thing we wanted was a trade embargo," says Dr. Paul Kitching, the centre's director.
Officials say they consider work on the virus an "essential" aspect of emergency preparedness.
"At the end of the day, Canada is the largest exporter of pigs and pig products in the world and the third-largest exporter of cattle and cattle products," say Dr. Kitching. "That would stop overnight if there were an outbreak of food-and-mouth disease. It would cost billions."
Several vials of the virus, carefully tucked in a crash-proof canister, touched down at Winnipeg International Airport last year in a cargo aircraft and were whisked to the federal lab near the city centre.
There, the viruses joined a collection of nasty pathogens including the microbes that cause Ebola and Lassa fever, deadly human diseases, and hog cholera and lumpy skin disease, which afflict animals.
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