Prices fall as farm virus takes hold

Up to 600 farms could be put under investigation

The full impact of the foot-and-mouth outbreak is beginning to take effect in Wales with livestock prices dropping by as much as 50% at some marts.

One abattoir - the Cig Mon plant at St. Asaph - has already been forced to close in the wake of Britain's first foot-and-mouth scare in 20 years.

Exclusion zone: Farringford Farm, Isle of Wight

Around 60 workers have been sent home and the company has warned that a long term export ban could jeopardise jobs.

Farmers are still being urged to check their livestock for signs of the virus following the discovery of 27 infected pigs at Cheale Meats near Brentwood in Essex on Wednesday.

Fears are growing that the outbreak is spreading after a new suspected case was reported at a slaughterhouse in Surrey.

An eight kilometre exclusion zone has been placed around Chitty's abattoir on the Slyfield Industrial Estate, Guilford, after symptoms were reported in a bullock which arrived for slaughter.

The case comes after Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown said he was relieved no new cases of the disease had been reported earlier on Thursday.

Foot-and-mouth restrictions

Slaughterhouse at Little Warey, Essex, cordoned off

Exclusion zones around two farms in Buckinghamshire

Exclusion zone around farm on Isle of Wight

Restrictions on farm in Stroud, Gloucestershire

Restrictions on farm in Goole, East Yorkshire

Exclusion zone around abattoir in Guildford

Experts are still trying to contain and trace the source of the virus, which was first discovered in pigs at an abattoir near Brentwood in Essex on Wednesday - the first case in the UK for 20 years.

Restrictions on the movement of animals have been introduced and, as market prices fall, farmers are beginning to feel the effects of the total ban on exports.

The Ministry of Agriculture says that as many as 600 farms could be placed under investigation in the race to trace the source of the outbreak.

Foot-and-mouth, a viral disease which causes blisters on the mouth and hooves of livestock, is highly contagious but poses little threat to humans.

Peter Kingwill, chairman of the Livestock Auctioneers' Association, said the price of live sheep has dropped from £1.20 a kilo to £1 and was expected to fall to 90p.

"We particularly fear for the sheep market which is now huge in Britain following the BSE crisis," he said.

The European Commission has banned all exports of British livestock, meat and dairy products, and a 10-mile exclusion zone has been placed around the Essex abattoir.

Hunting suspended

The estimated cost of the ban has been put at £8m a week.

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.

Restrictions are also in place on a Yorkshire farm, as one of the infected pigs was delivered from a market in Selby, and a farm near Stroud, Gloucestershire, following another "suspected" outbreak.

It will be the death knell for some farmers who are already at the end of their tether

Ben Gill
NFU Chairman

The chairman of the National Farming Union Ben Gill has warned that if foot-and-mouth spreads out of the exclusion zones farmers will be hit hard.

"It will be the death knell for some farmers who are already at the end of their tether," he said.

He also urged people not to travel into rural areas, as it could help to spread the virulent disease.

Other measures in place to curb the spread of the disease include a suspension of hunting for seven days, cancellation of Sunday's point to point meeting at High Easter near Chelmsford, and the closure of The National Trust farm at Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire.

"Everybody must be vigilant and journeys into the countryside where livestock are about should not take place unless necessary," Mr Gill told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.