'New cases' prompt disease fears

Cattle have been slaughtered as a precaution

Farmers in Leicestershire are said to be devastated by news of two suspected cases of foot-and-mouth, four months after the county was declared disease-free.

Emergency restrictions have been imposed on farms near Hinckley and Loughborough.

Workers from the Ministry of Rural Affairs have begun the task of disinfecting one of the farms.

On Saturday evening, 18 cattle were slaughtered at Copt Oak as a precaution, while a further 19 have been culled at a farm outside Hinckley.

They are still very firmly only suspected cases

Defra spokeswoman

Blood samples have been taken from the animals and results are expected back in the next few days.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC News Online that nothing had yet been confirmed.

"They are still very firmly only suspected cases," she said.

"Vets were called, the animals were looked at and FMD could not be ruled out so as a precautionary measure animals were slaughtered."

There have so far been six confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth in Leicestershire, the most recent on 23 April.

Disease in the UK

Total cases: 2,013

Slaughtered: 3,854,000

Awaiting slaughter: 8,000

Awaiting disposal:1,000

Earlier, Archbishop Rowan Williams of Wales attacked the government for not acting quickly enough during the crisis.

He said the executive had done little advanced planning before the disease.

He told BBC Radio Wales: "This was a set of issues which the government hadn't thought very much in advance about policy for rural areas.

"It looks as if the government reacted rather than acted in terms of rural questions.

"I think the confusion over vaccination policy is symptomatic of the fact it hadn't really been thought through in advance."

On Thursday, Defra declared all of north Wales was free of foot-and-mouth disease, which means farmers can enjoy freer movement of animals. But Brecon remains a "high risk" area.