For the 10th anniversary of the Convention, Cueim and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies set up a research group, presided over by Gaetano Golinelli, professor emeritus at La Sapienza University of Rome, and coordinated by professor Pier Luigi Petrillo.

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But, despite being no stranger to foot-and-mouth - he worked alongside the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food during the 1967 outbreak - even he has been taken by surprise at the virulence of the latest outbreak.

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Pier Luigi Petrillo , UNESCO Working Group Coordinator, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

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Thomlinson, who was working for the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, found the work distressing.

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The Environment Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and local authorities all have a part to play but the report said they should work more closely together.

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Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) officials now say the highly contagious virus may have been spreading from a pig farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, in Northumberland, for more than two weeks.

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According to Andres Oopkaup, Deputy Secretary General of Estonia's Agriculture Ministry, 37% of food and farm output is dependent on domestic milk production.

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The agriculture ministry handles disasters for the central government, an arrangement born of the view that farmers and the food supply are most at risk after catastrophes.

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