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Foot and mouth: cost of the crisis

By Victoria Macdonald

Updated on 06 August 2007

There may be no further cases, but foot and mouth crisis is already costing the industry £10m a week.

That's what the export ban alone on British meat is costing the country. The foot and mouth epidemic in 2001 made an £8bn dent in Britain's economy.

Figures from the Meat and Livestock Commission show that the apparently limited outbreak in Surrey is also likely to prove expensive.

The National Farmers' Union says that if the export ban and restrictions on the movement of animals within Britain lasted a long time, the final bill would run into tens of millions of pounds.

And it's not just farmers who are affected, as Victoria Macdonald reports.

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