Foot and mouth scare threatens New Zealand

A SMALL fall in the value of the New Zealand dollar was linked this week to a foot and mouth scare in the country, where about half of the economy is based on agriculture.

Police rushed to an island near New Zealand’s biggest city, after the prime minister received a letter claiming foot-and-mouth disease had been spread among thousands of livestock there.

An outbreak of the disease could devastate New Zealand ’s agriculture-dependent economy.