September 18, 2007

England resumes livestock movement to market

England's movement of animals susceptible to the foot-and-mouth disease to slaughter was resumed on September 16, outside a Surveillance Zone in southern England.

This moves in front of Monday's (September 17) arrival of the European Union's Food and Veterinary Office to evaluate measures taken in response to the recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth.

"We continue to take a risk-based, staged approach to movement controls," said UK Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds while calling on the industry to follow stringent biosecurity measures.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last week confirmed foot-and-mouth in cattle on a farm near Egham in the southern English county of Surrey adjacent to an outbreak discovered earlier in the week. This marked the fourth premises to be confirmed with the disease in this summer's outbreak.

Over the weekend, the decision was made to slaughter pigs on a farm in close proximity of the two newest infected premises in Surrey as a precautionary measure.