The European Union (EU) has said that Canada is overreacting to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease by imposing a ban on meat and dairy product imports from all European countries, Canadian Television (CTV) reported Wednesday.

EU spokesman Beate Gminder was quoted as saying that the ban should only apply to Britain and France where there are confirmed cases -- not all 15 of the countries in the EU.

However, Canadian Agricultural Minister Lyle Vanclief said "as soon as we found out about that proven case on the European continent we put the same surveillance and the same criteria in effect for anyone or anything coming from the continent as well."

The Canadian government announced the ban on Tuesday after cases of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed in France. The ban includes live animals, meat, dairy and cheese products, along with semen and embryos from certain animals.

The same measures have been put in place for people and products traveling from Argentina, where cases of foot-and-mouth disease have also been detected.

The last outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred in Canada in 1952 when someone entered the country with a partially cooked sausage containing the virus.

(Xinhua 03/15/2001)