FMD cases linked
13/09/2007
The latest outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in the UK is linked to the earlier cases on farms close to laboratory testing facilities in Surrey, the government has suggested.
Early indications are that the new case, discovered yesterday at a farm a few kilometres away, is of the same strain of the disease, a variant normally only found in laboratories.
The government is receiving fierce criticism as the new instance of FMD came only days after it had said the UK was once again free of the disease. It’s also been criticised because it runs one of the laboratories from which the virus first leaked in August.
Tens of head of cattle have been slaughtered in the last 24 hours in an attempt to prevent it from spreading further. A control zone has been established around the farm at the centre of the latest occurrence.
European Union officials have said no animal movements will be allowed from the UK until mid-October at the earliest.
The farming industry has said that first outbreak of FMD this summer has already cost it £50 million.
