managed and relatively small foot-and-mouth outbreak would take something like 10 billion (new Zealand) dollars (US$7.2 billion; ¤5.7 billion) off economic growth and basically wind back the economy for a year to 18 months, Sherwin said. Vet Phillip Brown said the checks would go on every 48 hours. «What we are doing now is a straight visual exam of everything,» he said. Earlier all animals were temperature checked for first signs of the disease. New Zealand has alerted some 50 trading partners to the scare, but so far none have severely curtailed the country's farm exports. Mexico, which had held up dozens of containers of meat and dairy products in the wake of the scare, released the containers late Saturday. The virus' incubation period is normally 4 to 7 days, but it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to appear. Foot-and-mouth affects cloven-hoofed animals causing sores, blisters and fever, but it is rarely fatal in livestock and harmless to people.
