Blockade curtails mass cull

A limited slaughter is on-going on Anglesey

The slaughter of 40,000 sheep on Anglesey has been curtailed because of protests at the proposed site for burning carcasses.

Residents from the village of Bodffordd have met with Welsh Assembly ministers to discuss public health concerns after successfully turning away a lorry carrying carcasses during an all-night vigil at the disused Mona airfield.

Crisis in the UK

50 new cases on UK-wide on Wednesday

Total confirmed cases 743 - with 43 in Wales

764,319 animals due for slaughter

481,909 already slaughtered

346,998 carcasses destroyed

They are adamant they will continue their blockade at Mona until a decision is taken to move the carcasses to a council-run landfill tip near Menai Bridge.

Meanwhile, another case has been confirmed at Bowen & Bowen, Penthryn, Brooks, Welshpool, bringing the Welsh total to 43. Twelve other sites are still under suspicion.

With more than a dozen lorries backed up at the Anglesey airfield, all movement of carcasses has been stopped and only limited slaughtering is being undertaken at the abattoir at Gaerwen.

Maff and Welsh Assembly officials have said they had listened to residents' views and would make a decision later on Thursday about how the operation would proceed.

Health fears have exacerbated the situation with the Environment Agency warning that air quality down wind of the burning pyres is likely to be very poor.

It recommends that people should not stay within two kilometres of the centre of the pyre for any significant length of time.

Lorries tailing back in front of the blockade

Of Wales's 43 confirmed cases, 13 are on the island of Anglesey.

The slaughter - similar to action being carried out in Cumbria - was ordered to create a firebreak to halt the further spread of the disease.

Agriculture Minister Carwyn Jones has pleaded with the protesters to allow the burning to continue.

Click here to see 1967 foot-and-mouth figures compared to 2001 figures.

"Just let us get on and finish the job," he said.

"We want to get this over and done with as quickly as possible. There is no threat to human health or animal health.

"Clearly there will be unpleasantness and it will be a nuisance for a time, but think about the farmers - think about what they are losing."

Meanwhile in Powys - where a new case on Thursday took the total there to 26 - preparations for a second mass cull are underway, with the arrival of 20 soldiers in Montgomery.

But there another row has erupted with farmers intending to fight plans to bury carcasses on an army range in an unaffected area.

Ron Davies AM: Vaccination campaign

Two possible burial sites have been identified on the Army's Eppynt training range which has been closed by the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Objections have been raised by the Farmers' Union of Wales which has said the range is widely used as common grazing land.

A spokesman said it would be "utter madness" to bring animals into an area which is so far completely unaffected by foot and mouth.

Opposition to the concept of mass slaughter is growing, with increasing calls for vaccination programme to help control the disease.

Caerphilly AM Ron Davies - a former Labour spokesman on agriculture - is urging the assembly to push for vaccination as a method of control.

He wants it to put pressure on UK Agriculture Minister Nick Brown to consider using vaccination as an additional weapon in the fight against foot-and-mouth.

Mass vaccination

Speaking on BBC Wales's Good Morning Wales, he said: "The sheer scale of the slaughter is placing a strain on resources.

"If the spread of the disease continues, then vaccination has a real role to play."

Addressing assembly members, Agriculture Minister Carwyn Jones dismissed the idea.

"If we are to get on top of this disease in Wales, we must move forward on the basis of veterinary advice," he said.

"Vaccination is simply the road to more suffering for farmers."

"All that vaccination does is to buy you time," he said. "The animals would still have to be culled."

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National Assembly for Wales foot-and-mouth helpline 0800 0858119