The European commissioner for health and consumer affairs, David Byrne, played down on Saturday the dangers of foot-and-mouth disease spreading to humans, while scientists in Britain said tests on 13 suspected victims had proved negative.
Speaking at a meeting of EU consumer ministers in Lund, Byrne said "he was not very concerned" about suspect cases of foot-and-mouth in people that were being investigated in Britain.
"Obviously I don't like to see people getting ill. But from the point of view of public health ... the question of foot and mouth disease being transfered to humans is not a serious disease in itself and it's not likely to be widespread ... I don't have any real apprehensions about this," he said.
British health ministry scientists said Saturday that tests on 13 people who had been reported as having a human form of foot-and-mouth disease had proved negative, and they did not have the livestock disease.
The last confirmed case in humans in Britain was during an isolated outbreak 35 years ago, but officials had admitted they were braced for similar reports during the current epidemic.
Earlier this week, a slaughterman, 33-year-old Paul Stamper, was thought to have contracted the disease but he was later given the all-clear.
Stamper told reporters how he was handling the carcass of a cow -- which was bloated with methane gas -- when it exploded, spewing a splash of entrails into his mouth.
He subsequently developed some of the tell-tale symptoms of foot-and-mouth. He had blisters on his tongue and the back of his throat, although there were none on his hands or feet.
Stamper said it was like having "a bad case of the 'flu." -- LUND, Sweden (AFP)
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