Foot and Mouth Disease Returns...
Posted on Saturday, August 04 @ 17:51:41 BST by jenvetadmin
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There is a new foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey.
An immediate two-mile exclusion zone has been in place around the farm along with a UK-wide ban on movement of all cattle and pigs. A further six-mile surveillance zone was also put around the area of the infected farm.
Defra confirmed about 40 cows on a farm near Guildford had tested positive.
You will no doubt have the images from 2001 fresh in your minds as an outbreak of the highly-contagious disease swept across the country after first being found at an abattoir in Essex.
Up to 10 million sheep, pigs and cattle were slaughtered and burned on giant funeral pyres. Thousands of farmers were in financial ruin in an 11-month disaster that cost Britain £8.5billion.
Last night Gordon Brown immediately ended his holiday in Dorset to chair a meeting of the emergency COBRA committee.
He will return to London today. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn is returning from holiday in Italy. In the aftermath of the 2001 epidemic Tony Blair's government was accused of failing to take the outbreak seriously until it had already spread out of control.
But a government source said: "This is going to be very different from 2001. At the moment there are only a handful of animals involved and they will be immediately slaughtered."
Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance said: "Farmers around the country will be hoping and praying that this is an isolated incident and that the disease is not already widespread."
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