September 20, 2007

 

UK confirms another FMD outbreak

 

 

The British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed on September 18 the presence of foot-and-mouth-disease on sheep herd in Klondyke Farm in Egham, Surrey.

 

Pigs, cattle and sheep were slaughtered as a precaution on Monday night after initial tests on sheep showed signs of foot-and-mouth.

 

Defra also said foot-and-mouth lesions were found on the carcasses of cattle on the farm.

 

The farmer's owner Sally Hepplethwaite, 69, told BBC News that her pigs, cattle and sheep had been culled. She kept the animals mostly as pets and said that two of her lambs would sleep in the kitchen at the farm near Egham, Surrey.

 

The Klondyke keeps a small herd of cattle, sheep and other farmyard animals as pets.

 

In a separate development, it was also revealed that an unidentified site in Wales was under investigation after it was linked to the latest farm to be infected.

 

The Welsh Assembly Government said it could not disclose the premises' location, but stressed there was no sign of infection.

 

Officials said it was only being examined as part of a routine tracing exercise. Tracing is where farmers are urged to notify any link with the infected premises within the past few months.

 

If foot-and-mouth had been detected at the site, it is understood the identity of the site would have been made public.

 

The Egham farm is the third to be hit by the latest outbreak. Two other farms in Surrey were also affected last month.

 

The latest case, within the protection zone in Surrey and near the premises affected last week, came just as the outbreak appeared to have been contained.

 

Farmers outside the stricken area were permitted to start taking their animals for slaughter again on Sunday after transport restrictions were relaxed by Defra.

 

Before Monday night, no further instances of the disease had been reported since slaughtered cattle were found to be infected at two farms near Egham last week.

 

Minor changes have now been made to the protection and surveillance zones as a result of the new case and further laboratory tests are being done on the animals.

 

The new cases are thought to involve the same strain of the disease as that found in animals culled last month at the village of Normandy, near Guildford.

 

A Health and Safety Executive investigation found the disease might have escaped from a leaky pipe running between a government-run animal health laboratory and a privately-run pharmaceuticals firm, Merial Animal Health, at Pirbright, three miles from the original outbreak.

 

Shadow Defra secretary Peter Ainsworth said the news has been "disturbing" since the farming community have been hoping "the outbreak is now over".

 

Ainsworth said the outbreak was caused by "government negligence" and they hope officials should be competent in dealing with the clean-up.

 

He said the big question that still remains is "how foot-and-mouth could ever have escaped from a government-licensed laboratory in the first place?"