CHINA has banned imports of British livestock and their products to guard against an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the government's food safety bureau announced yesterday.
The ban went into effect on Tuesday and covers all hoofed animals, along with their meat, milk and other products, according to a circular posted on the Website of the , Inspection, and Quarantine.
Such products arriving in China before yesterday, including milk and meat, would be tested for the disease and allowed to enter the country if shown to be safe, the administration said.
All products received on or after yesterday would be sent back or destroyed, it said.
British authorities have thrown a 3.22-kilometer protection zone around two farms where the virus was discovered last week.
The ban covers commercial imports, private shipments and products on board flights, trains and ships passing through China or docking at Chinese ports.
The highly contagious foot-and-mouth virus was discovered on a farm in southern England last week located 6.5 kilometers from a laboratory complex shared by the government's Institute for Animal Health and a firm that produces foot-and-mouth vaccines.
Foot-and-mouth can be carried by wind and on the vehicles and clothes of people who come into contact with infected animals.
Cattle at the farm and another one located within the exclusion zone have been slaughtered.