Foot-and-mouth pigs test negative

Strict precautions have been taken since this recent outbreak began

A preliminary test for foot-and-mouth disease in pigs culled on a Surrey farm has proved negative, officials say.

The full test results will become available on Tuesday.

The pigs were on a farm near two premises infected by foot-and-mouth and they were culled as a precaution.

Britain's biggest sale of breeding lambs has been cancelled because of animal movement restrictions because of the Surrey outbreak.

Some 30,000 young sheep were due to be sold in the annual two-day auction in Hawes, in the Yorkshire Dales.

The event usually sees £2m exchange hands and is the biggest pay day in the calendar for about 500 local farmers.

But since the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, livestock cannot be traded or moved unless it is for slaughter.

'Encouraging signal'

The BBC's Richard Wells said farmers would be left desperately short of money.

Hotels, guesthouses and pubs would also suffer, he said.

If I don't sell my cattle it means I have to keep feeding them and that costs money Matthew Bainbridge Cumbrian farmer Misery for farmers across UK

The movement ban - described by farmers as "heartbreaking" - was put in place across Britain when a case of the disease was discovered in cattle on land in Egham last Wednesday.

It was later confirmed on a second farm.

Organisers of the Masham Sheep Fair, in North Yorkshire, have said they are to go ahead with their event on the 29 and 30 September, despite the foot-and-mouth restrictions meaning sheep cannot attend.

On Saturday, the government's chief vet lifted a ban on farmers across most of England from taking livestock to slaughter, considered by farmers to be an "encouraging signal".

However, a full ban on any movement remains in place in the surveillance zone around the two infected sites in Surrey.

A 3km (1.8-mile) protection zone has been set up around the farmland, with a 10km (6.2-mile) surveillance zone encircling it.

Zones are imposed around places where outbreaks have been confirmed and related sites Enlarge Map

Laboratory results have established the virus found at the latest outbreak to be the same strain as the one in August.

Reports suggested last month's outbreak was connected with the Pirbright laboratory site, shared by two occupants - the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and Merial Animal Health.

Estimates of the cost of the latest outbreak have been put at almost £10m a day.

Police and trading standards officials were continuing to monitor the area following reports that closure signs on footpaths had been torn down and people had been side-stepping disinfectant mats.

A spokesman for Surrey trading standards said although no arrests had been made over the weekend, officials were looking into reports that horses had been moved illegally in and out of the protection zone.