Foot-and-mouth controls extended

The foot-and-mouth controls at Balearic airports are to continue for an extra two weeks, until March 27, in accordance with a Brussels' decision to prolong the duration of controls on British goods and people. All British items of hand luggage and checked luggage are being opened by the Guardia Civil at Palma airport, with perishable goods seized, and the “disinfected red carpet treatment” for British visitors will run on past the initial March 9 shut off date. However, the controls may not be merely confined to British travellers as leading vets backed the farming community's call for all visitors to be disinfected, whatever their nationality. With the equestrian community facing another weekend of no races in the Balearics and livestock traders prohibited from Sineu market yesterday -- one of the island's main livestock events -- Majorca's rural heartland has come to a grinding halt