I just happened to catch part of a show on The Weather Channel today about dust storms and desertification. One thing it mentioned was that an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in Britain may have gotten there due to a dust storm that brought the infection from Africa:
<br /> <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.rmla.com/FMD.htm">http://www.rmla.com/FMD.htm</a>
<br /><div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Britain's foot and mouth epidemic may have been caused by a cloud of infected dust blown from the Sahara, say scientists.
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<br />They have linked the outbreak to a massive plume of sand that swirled out of northern Africa several days before the disease was first reported.
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<br />The soil there is contaminated with microbes and faeces.
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<br />Dr Dale Griffin, of the US Geological Survey, told the Observer: "Satellite images show a dust cloud moving over the Atlantic and reaching Britain on 13 February. One week later, foot and mouth broke out in the UK.
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<br />"Given that the disease's incubation period is seven days, that is one heck of a coincidence."</end quote>
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<br />(I'm not sure when this was but I don't believe it was recent. I believe it was 2001.)
