FOOT-MOUTH DISEASE PROMPTS TOUR CANCELLATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2000

Fairbanks, Alaska – Public and school tours of the Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have been cancelled. Visitors will also be prohibited near animal areas at UAF's Palmer and Fairbanks Agricultural Experimental Farms. Although the Georgeson Botanical Gardens in Fairbanks will remain open, visitors will be restricted to the garden and visitor areas only. No one will be allowed at any UAF animal facility if they have traveled outside North America within the last five days.

The action to cancel tours was taken by UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology Large Animal Research Committee as a precautionary measure to prevent the possible spread of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious viral infection of cloven-footed, hoofed animals.

"Although the overall risk to UAF animals is unknown, the consequences of the disease is substantial and our researchers are understandably concerned," said John Blake, UAF Attending Veterinarian and professor of veterinary medicine. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) can be spread by air or soil. Although FMD does not affect humans, both people and some animals can be are carriers of the disease.

"Any positive diagnosis in our UAF animals, or animals close to UAF, will result in the destruction of all the herd," said Blake.

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Europe has prompted similar visitor restrictions at agricultural colleges across the U.S. LARS is a popular tourist destination attracting some 5,000 people from around the world each summer.

Over the past few weeks, UAF's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) has stepped up information efforts to raise awareness about the seriousness of FMD, which could potentially devastate UAF's herds of about 215 livestock. UAF's muskoxen, reindeer, caribou and cattle are essential links in dozens of research projects representing millions of dollars worth of studies about the unique biology and habitat of animals in the Far North. LARS opened in 1981 and began offering tours in 1983. and

For additional information, visit the UAF IACUC web site at: http://www.uaf.edu/iacuc/ USDA is also maintaining an FMD information page on current activities and recommendations at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/fmd/index.html

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CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Carla Browning 907-474-7778.

DPD/4-27-01/01-066