More than 20,000 New Zealand farm animals continue to show no sign of foot-and-mouth disease _ nearly a week after a scare over the virus became public, officials said Sunday. With no animals exhibiting any symptoms, officials believe an extortion letter claiming that feed hay had been infected with the disease on Waiheke Island was a hoax, according to AP. The nation's Agriculture ministry said foot-and-mouth _ which is highly contagious but seldom fatal to livestock _ had not been found anywhere in the country, including at a second location where a letter to Prime Minister Helen Clark last Monday threatened a further release. Police, backed by Australian police threat assessment experts, believe the letter poses a «low level of threat,» reinforcing the view that it is a hoax. Authorities continue to take the threat seriously and will test the island's 18,000 sheep and 2,500 cattle every 48 hours till May 23, the director general of the Agriculture Ministry, Murray Sherwin, said. A foot-and-mouth outbreak would devastate New Zealand's tourism and farming industries _ the main pillars of the economy and major earners of foreign exchange. International markets would probably ban mutton, beef, wool, cheese and other farm products from New Zealand, while travel restrictions imposed within the country would hurt tourism, analysts say. --More 1432 Local Time 1132 GMT
