Evening Chronicle Report today Jun 29 2001 by Nic Outterside, Evening Chronicle

Government scientists in four countries were preparing for a foot and mouth | outbreak months before it swept Britain.

A Chronicle investigation has discovered the British, American, Canadian and Mexican governments were all staging a co-ordinated foot and mouth simulation exercise in October 2000, despite the fact that Britain had not been struck by the disease for 34 years and the USA and Canada had not been affected since 1929.

Today's discovery sparked calls for the Government to admit it knew foot and mouth was present in the UK long before it was officially pinpointed at Bobby Waugh's Heddon-on-the-Wall pig farm on February 23.

And it led Mr Waugh to call for a public apology from the Government after MAFF consistently blamed his farm as 'the likely source of the outbreak."

Our probe has found that last October the United States, Canada and Mexico began preparing for 'a simulated outbreak of foot and mouth disease' in all three countries.

According to papers leaked from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the exercise - which took place between November 6 and 9 - was 'for the purpose of emergency planning'.

It took place in Ontario, Alberta, Texas, USA and Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The papers state: "This exercise is the first of its kind and provides all three countries with a unique opportunity to apply their emergency response plans in the event of a real disease outbreak."

Yet neither Canada, the USA or Mexico had been affected with foot and mouth disease since 1929.

And the exercise was the first US 'Foreign Animal Disease Response Simulation' of any kind since 1993.

At the same time the UK Government was preparing its own 'contingency plans' for a foot and mouth outbreak - even though the last foot and mouth outbreak here was in 1967.

The Chronicle has discovered that MAFF officials began telephoning timber merchants as early as December asking if they could supply wood for pyres, should foot and mouth strike.

Mike Littlehales, who ran a timber yard in Staffordshire said he received a phone call 'out of the blue'.

He said: "I got this call from a lady who said: "This is the Ministry of Agriculture. Would you be interested in supplying timber in case of foot and mouth? Because she wanted to update her records.

"It surprised me and I thought it was doubly strange when three weeks later the Government tell us we have an outbreak of the disease."

Mr Littlehales said the last time his timber business had received a similar call was during the foot and mouth outbreak in 1967.

Amble-based geneticist Bruce Jobson, added: "This confirms what we knew all along, that the Government was aware foot and mouth was on the loose long before they identified it at Bobby Waugh's farm.

"The new Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) must now admit that MAFF had covered up the real cause of this outbreak."

Newcastle-based microbiologist Dr Harash Narang added: "I firmly believe that the virus escaped from a MAFF experiment and had infected sheep as long ago as last October.

Mr Waugh said he felt vindicated that he was not responsible for the foot and mouth outbreak.

"Again, again and again I have been blamed for this disease, when I knew all along it wasn't me.

"I now want the Government to admit they got it wrong and tell us all how thins thing really started."

A spokesman for the Canadian Government said he was unable to comment on its foot and mouth simulation exercise due to agreements it had made with the British Government.

"Due to the sensitivity surrounding events which have occurred since February this year, we are unable to comment further on the reasons or results of the November exercise," he added.

But a DEFRA spokesman denied that MAFF had tried to cover-up the outbreak.