OWENSBORO, Ky. — State and federal veterinarians and agriculture officials met Wednesday to discuss the possibility of Scottish tourists bringing foot-and-mouth disease into Kentucky.

        State Board of Agriculture members said that some have raised concern about the disease being carried by tourists and animals from Scotland when they attend the annual Highland Games in Glasgow, Ky.

        The games, hosting for the first time the International Gathering of Scottish Clans, are scheduled for May 30 to June 3, a Glasgow city spokeswoman said.

        “I'm much more concerned with tourism and bioterrorism than I am with livestock” being imported into the country, said Billy Ray Smith, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

        Michael Pavlick, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said no animals susceptible to foot and mouth disease will be allowed at the games. Tourists will also have their clothes laundered when they arrive to prevent the spread of the disease, he said.

        The tourists will include representatives from the Clans Anderson, Carmichael, Erskine, Gunn, Irwin, Kennedy, Lumsden, MacDonald, MacKenzie, MacLean, MacLennan, MacTavish, Montgomery and Urquhart. They'll visit Barren River Lake State Resort Park for highland dancing, caber tossing and other celebrations of Scottish culture.

        Glasgow, settled by Scottish immigrants, was one of the first towns founded in Kentucky and is home to one of the nation's first golf courses.

        Officials recently investigated two cases of possible foot-and- mouth disease in Kentucky, but both were negative, said Roger Odenweller, USDA area veterinarian in charge.

        A total of 1.2 million animals have been slaughtered in Europe since the outbreak of the disease was discovered.

        Foot-and-mouth disease is deadly to animals but does not hurt humans. It is spread by infected animals' bodily secretions and breath.

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