Illegal meats 'led to disease'

A failure to police illegal meat imports laid Britain wide open to foot-and-mouth disease, according to a report today.

The National Farmers Union is calling for an urgent clampdown on black-market meat imports, including fines for travellers who smuggle risky foodstuffs such as bush meat into Britain.

Their report backs up serious concern following an investigation by the Evening Standard last year, which revealed how thousands of tons a year of rotting bush meat was being smuggled into Britain in suitcases at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

The NFU now believe that illegally imported meat which contaminated animal feed is the likely cause of the outbreak which cost the industry £900million and 8,000 farmers and farm workers their jobs.

The NFU says the Government needs to allocate more cash towards checking what is coming into the country. It also wants to see a tightening of port controls. A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was studying how import controls might be tightened.

The report also warns that a string of government blunders allowed the crisis to spiral out of control. The Government appeared "overwhelmed" by the speed with which it spread.

The foot-and-mouth epidemic has had a severe impact on both agriculture and the tourism industry. A recent report by the Countryside Agency says the epidemic could cost the UK up to £4.1 billion.

In the Standard investigation, reporters obtained meat unfit for human consumption from Brixton market, including cows' feet, goat intestine and a giant "grass cutter" rodent.

Heathrow officials revealed that discoveries in the past 18 months included 2,500kg of meat in 56 bags which were traced to one Nigerian passenger, including a freshly slaughtered deer and maggot-infested fish. A cargo declared as vegetables contained 15 monkeys, an anteater and tortoise legs.