October 2, 2007

UK to cull more animals for foot-and-mouth-disease 

Animals will be culled at four farms which neighbour the site of the latest confirmed case of foot and mouth disease, the government has said.

The disease has been identified at eight farms in Surrey since August, including the latest case, confirmed yesterday, at a farm near Wraysbury.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said veterinary experts concluded that a number of cattle on four premises in the vicinity of the latest confirmed case have been exposed to infection to such a degree that they are likely to develop disease.

Defra said surveillance and blood testing, through which the case at Wraysbury was detected, will continue in the area.

Yesterday the National Farmers' Union (NFU) warned of the dire financial consequences of the disease.

NFU spokesman Anthony Gibson said the longer these outbreaks come, the longer it will take to get the export ban lifted which costs GBP2 million a day.

Gibson is urging farmers to remain vigilant and check their animals twice a day to knock the virus on the head as quickly as we can.

The latest foot-and-mouth outbreak comes at a time when England's farming community is already reeling from the UK's first cases of bluetongue.

Veterinarians have confirmed 11 cases of the virus - ten in the Ipswich area and one near Lowestoft, Suffolk.