New outbreak of foot and mouth disease confirmed in UK
Pastor Dale Morgan
New outbreak of foot and mouth disease confirmed in UK*
LONDON (AFP) - - A new outbreak of foot and mouth disease was confirmed
in Britain on Wednesday and the European Union reimposed a ban on
British meat exports.
The new case was discovered close to a farm south of London where an
outbreak was first reported last month.
Restrictions imposed then were only lifted four days ago and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) imposed a new
England-wide ban on the movement of cattle, sheep, pigs and other ruminants.
Cattle were ordered slaughtered on the affected farm, near Egham, west
of London. Egham is 13 miles (21 kilometres) from the village of
Normandy, where foot and mouth disease was confirmed on August 3.
The European Union reimpose a total ban on meat and livestock exports
from Britain to the other 26 member states, the European Commission said.
Britain's red meat export market is worth about 500 million pounds (731
million euros/one billion dollars) a year, mostly with the EU.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown chaired a meeting of COBRA, Britain's
emergency contigencies committee.
A three-kilometre (two-mile) protection zones were thrown around the
farm holdings with a wider 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) surveillance zone
imposed on the farm.
An official investigation last week concluded that the earlier outbreak
was probably caused by leaking drains, flooding and vehicles moving from
nearby animal vaccine laboratories without pinpointing the exact source.
"Initial laboratory tests on the samples taken this morning from the
cattle on the holding in Surrey where disease was suspected have
indicated the presence of foot and mouth disease," Defra said in a
statement.
UK chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds confirmed foot and mouth the
new case. "At this stage we have not identified the strain or origin of
this outbreak," she said in the statement.
"The situation remains uncertain, and I urge all animal keepers to be
vigilant for signs of disease, practise stringent biosecurity measures,
including the movement ban and licensing conditions."
Television reports said vets were checking the condition of a sick
animal at a market in Lanark, Scotland which showed possible signs of
foot and mouth.
The wider restriction zone around the new case in England encircles
London Heathrow Airport -- the world's busiest airport -- stretches of
the M25 London orbital motorway, the M4 motorway to Wales and the River
Thames, rail routes to central London -- including the main line to
Wales and south-west England -- and Windsor Castle, which Queen
Elizabeth II considers as her home.
Neither Crown Estates, which runs Windsor Castle and the Great Park
grounds, nor Heathrow operator BAA were immediately available for
comment when contacted by AFP.
Network Rail, which owns Britain's rail infrastructure, and train
operator South-West Trains, which runs the London Waterloo to Reading
line that goes through Egham, said no special measures had been put in
place.
"We are completely stunned. It's an absolute hammer blow," said Anthony
Gibson, a spokesman for the National Farmers' Union.
"The message to farmers has got to be the virus is back. We're going to
be reliving the nightmare.
"The government has very serious questions to answer. If it's a fresh
leak, they're going to have to pull out all the stops to limit the damage."
Britain on Saturday had lifted the last livestock restrictions imposed
after last month's foot and mouth outbreak.
"I'm satisfied that foot and mouth has been eradicated from the UK in
2007," Reynolds said Friday.
The outbreaks raised the spectre of a repeat of a 2001 crisis, in which
up to 10 million animals were culled and which cost the national economy
about eight billion pounds (11.7 billion euros, 16.0 billion dollars).