Battle to trace disease source

Government officials inspect a suspect farm

A race against time has begun to trace the source of the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease to hit Britain in 20 years.

The European Commission has banned all exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products, and a ten-mile exclusion zone has been placed around the Essex abattoir where the highly infectious disease was first detected.

Five farms around the country have been ringed by five-mile animal movement exclusion areas, in an effort to restrict the disease to the abattoir.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown has said the government is taking "tough action" to tackle the outbreak quickly and is prepared to compensate farmers for any animals destroyed.

Abattoir workers even have to spray their boots clean

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture will meet the National Farmers' Union on Thursday to discuss the crisis.

Mr Brown said the government was doing everything possible to stamp out the disease, including quarantine and inspecting every farm that sent animals to the affected abattoir.

"If necessary, the government will purchase the animals from the farmer, pay 100% compensation and destroy them," he said.

But not everyone is convinced the government is doing enough.

Shadow Agriculture Minister Tim Yeo said: "I have already talked to farmers who are on the brink of despair because they can see an uncertain future continuing and they don't know for how long and no clear explanation of what the government is prepared to do to keep those businesses in existence."

More than 300 pigs and 60 cattle had been killed at the Cheale Meats site and an adjacent farm owned by the same family.

Four other farms are under quarantine restrictions, including two which sent the infected animals to the abattoir, in Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire and Freshwater Bay, on the Isle of Wight.

Infected farms will have to slaughter livestock

Restrictions are also in place on a Yorkshire farm, as one of the infected pigs was delivered from a market in Selby.

A farm near Stroud, Gloucestershire, is also quarantined following another suspected outbreak.

The disease has been identified as "type O" strain, with tests suggesting it is similar to that which caused outbreaks in Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Russia.

Officials said none of the infected animals had been imported into Britain.

But that does not rule out the origins of the infection from illegal foreign meat.

The United States, Ireland, and South Korea have banned pig imports from Britain.

Food 'safe'

The Food Standards Agency said the disease posed no threat to food safety and that the export ban was aimed at stamping it out.

A spokesman said transmission to humans is possible with close physical contact with an infected animal but "extremely rare".

"But the disease cannot be caught by humans eating meat or drinking pasteurised milk."

This is the latest blow to Britain's farmers following last year's outbreak of swine fever, which led to the slaughter of 12,000 pigs and a temporary ban on the export of live pigs and pig semen.

Foot-and-mouth is a highly infectious viral disease which can affect cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

It causes blisters in the mouth, leading to increased salivation and lameness.

Death is not usual but animals cease gaining weight and dairy cattle production falls.

Britain's last major outbreak was in 1967, while the most recent outbreak in the EU took place in Greece last year.