When the news broke yesterday morning that a French cow was suffering from foot-and-mouth disease, European governments descended into a state of shock. Only a week ago EU vets were predicting that the disease in Britain would peak within days and that the rest of Europe could soon start to relax.
Yesterday, as Belgium imposed an immediate ban on the importation of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats from France, Germany told tourists returning from France to leave food behind them.
"The event that we feared has happened. Foot-and-mouth disease from the UK has reached the European mainland. The situation is very, very serious", said Alexander Mueller, a junior minister at Germany's Consumer Safety Ministry.
As the EU's Standing Veterinary Committee considered new measures to tackle the crisis EU officials reacted with concern to a statement by the French Agriculture Minister, Mr Jean Glavany.
Confirming the case in the western department of Mayenne, Mr Glavany warned that the virus may already have spread to other parts of France.
"In the last few weeks of February, we imported 20,000 sheep from Britain, and the tests which have been carried out afterwards showed that a very large number of these sheep - at least half of them - were carrying the virus. These sheep were dispatched to about 20 French departments. So they might have possibly transmitted the virus to others," he said.
EU officials interpreted Mr Glavany's remarks as evidence that the French authorities expect more cases of the disease, despite the slaughter of more than 40,000 animals since the crisis began.
Although public opinion in Europe blames Britain for both foot-and-mouth disease and BSE, there is little support for Irish demands that Britain should impose greater restrictions on the movement of people. No other EU member-state has imposed restrictions as stringent as those in force in Ireland and none is likely to adopt them.
EU officials express understanding for the Republic's decision to adopt an exceptionally precautionary approach because the threat of the disease is so grave.
But there is no appetite in the Commission for exerting pressure on the British authorities, who are perceived in Brussels as having done their best to contain the spread of the disease. The Food Safety Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, regards controlling the movement of animals as the key to halting the spread of the virus and he is concerned that the crisis should be tackled on a pan-European basis rather than through unilateral action by national governments.
As the crisis enters a new phase EU insiders are intrigued by its effect on public opinion and pressure is mounting for a thorough overhaul of EU farm policy. After decades of cheap food available all the year round, European consumers are now wondering if there is anything left that is safe to eat.
The slaughter of entire herds and images of burning cadavers have horrified many people who have until now avoided thinking about where their food comes from. And many European citizens are morally outraged by a farm policy which encourages the destruction of perfect food to support the market. Germany's Minister for Consumer Safety and Agriculture, Ms Renate Kuenast, is leading the calls for a reform of EU farm policy which would reward producers of safe, ecologically-sound food and discourage intensive farming practices.
Since she took office earlier this year Ms Kuenast has become her country's most popular politician and her reform proposals have the full backing of the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroeder.
Ms Kuenast got off to a rocky start in Brussels when she opposed the EU's policy of culling hundreds of thousands of cattle to support the beef market during the BSE crisis. The German minister was forced to back down, but she may have damaged relations with her most powerful natural ally, the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler.
As Austria's minister of agriculture, Mr Fischler ushered in an age of ecological farming which Ms Kuenast's colleagues in the German Greens could only dream about. The Commissioner will preside over an interim agricultural policy audit which will allow member-states to pursue more environmentally friendly policies.
German policy-makers believe that a proposal to partly renationalise farm policy - passing much of the burden of subsidies on to member-state governments - could win support within the EU. The proposal was rejected at the Berlin summit in 1999, when EU farm spending was agreed until 2006. But the latest food crisis could allow it to be resurrected later this year.
The EU spends almost half its budget on agriculture and the financial burden could become greater when new member-states from Central and Eastern Europe join the Union.
IF Germany is the most powerful advocate of change, France is the strongest defender of the status quo. Berlin complains that France has used the Common Agricultural Policy to channel billions of pounds back into its own borders and to an important voting group. But France, along with Spain and Ireland, argues that EU farm subsidies are a legitimate component of the inner-European balancing of interests between north and south and between agriculturally-oriented member-states and more industrialised countries such as Germany.
The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, who faces an election next year, will resist any reform which would cut subsidies to French farmers. But as European consumers gaze in disgust at each new burning pyre of farm animals suspected of exposure to foot-and-mouth disease the pressure for change may have become unstoppable.