No end in sight to foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain

Sep 24 2007

Following four cases of foot-and-mouth at farms in Surrey in the last two weeks another suspected case has now been detected in Hampshire.

{IMAGE}The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in Britain says a 3km temporary control zone has been established around the site in Petersfield in Hampshire, about 70 kilometres from a premises near Egham, west of London, where the disease was confirmed earlier this month.

Cattle at a farm on the border between Surrey and Berkshire border were culled on Saturday after testing positive for the disease along with a cow on a Suffolk farm with the country's first case of bluetongue disease.

On the weekend 40 cattle were culled at Beaumont College farm in Old Windsor after the entire herd tested positive for the disease which was the fourth farm affected in the past two weeks around Egham, Surrey.

The first case emerged days after officials declared the UK free of the disease following the initial outbreak in August.

A 3km control zone has now been set up around the affected farms but a number of suspicious sites outside Surrey have all proven to be false alarms allowing for some of the movement restrictions outside the surveillance zone to be lifted.

DEFRA says the measures are precautionary and follow a veterinary assessment.

To date as many as 1,800 animals have been slaughtered.

The easing of some of the restrictions now means with a licence it is possible to move pigs for welfare reasons, and move cows for calving up to 50km between premises belonging to the same owner; other animals may be moved up to 3km.

The first outbreak in August, which affected two premises, was ultimately traced to the virus escaping from leaking pipes at the nearby Pirbright laboratory site.