Foot and mouth disease has wreaked havoc in the UK, devastating scores of farms the length and breadth of the country.
In continental Europe, national authorities have been taking extreme emergency measures to prevent the disease spreading further afield. In Ireland, meanwhile, the agri-food sector was implementing strict border controls after the disease took hold in neighbouring Ulster.
There was better news for British dairy processors when the European Commission relaxed an initial ban on exports of dairy products from the UK. However, there was still confusion as we went to press over exactly which products were covered by the embargo.
The Dairy Industry Federation, which represents British processors, claimed pasteurised liquid milk and unpasteurised dairy products were prohibited from export to the European Union. The European Commission, however, insisted that only unpasteurised products were covered by the ban as pasteurisation is known to kill the foot and mouth virus.
In any case, manufacturers of processed dairy foods breathed a sigh of relief at news that an initial ban on all dairy exports had been rescinded. An outright ban on all dairy products had threatened to cost the industry nearly