New foot-and-mouth case confirmed

A fourth case of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed on a farm in the Egham area of Surrey, officials say.

The Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) said about 40 cattle had been culled on the premises, within the current 3km protection zone.

Tests were carried out after the animals showed signs of the disease.

The disease has been confirmed at three other farms in the Egham area during the last two weeks; the latest case is the sixth in Surrey since early August.

A Defra spokeswoman said: "Positive test results for foot-and-mouth disease have now been confirmed at the site where it was decided that cattle should be slaughtered on suspicion."

The spokeswoman added that "minor changes" had been made to the protection and surveillance zones. The farm has not been named.

False alarms

BBC correspondent Helena Wilkinson said it was not yet known if it was the same strain as the other five cases, but the news would be a further blow to farmers prevented from moving livestock at a busy time of year for sales.

"It has had a devastating effect, a lot of farmers are saying, on their sales and their livelihood but there's some relief that this sixth confirmed case is within that three-kilometre zone," she said.

A number of sites outside Surrey have also been investigated and several control zones set up, but these have all proved to be false alarms.

On Thursday a temporary control zone imposed around a farm near Solihull, West Midlands, was lifted after tests on animals for the disease proved negative.

Slaughter

Four new cases near Egham have emerged in the last two weeks - just days after officials declared the UK free of the disease following the August outbreak.

That had been blamed on the virus escaping from leaking pipes at the nearby Pirbright laboratory site.

Some 1,800 animals have so far been slaughtered but some of the movement restrictions outside the surveillance zone have been lifted.

Licences are now available to allow pigs to be moved for welfare reasons, and the movement of animals up to 3km (1.8 miles) or cows for calving up to 50km (31 miles) between premises belonging to the same owner.