Show goes on despite cattle ban

No cattle anywhere in the UK can be moved

A UK-wide ban on livestock movements has not prevented what has been dubbed one of north-west's England's "finest agricultural shows" going ahead.

The ban was put in place after cattle at a farm in Surrey were found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease.

Organisers of the 192nd Garstang Show, in Lancashire, were going ahead with the one-day event on Saturday.

But the ban meant none of its cattle, sheep and goat sections could be held at the showground.

Conservative MEP Sir Robert Atkins, who represents the North West, said it was important that the event went ahead.

Export ban

"It is a difficult day, particularly since it happened at 2200 BST last night. So livestock, for example, were stopped coming to the show.

"Garstang Show is one of the finest one-day agricultural shows in the North West and I represent the whole of the North West so I see a few.

"It's very, very good indeed largely because it concentrates on agriculture and rural issues."

The last foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001 hit farmers, and tourism, in the region hard.

Alastair Watson, who was manager of the Lancaster Auction in 2001, said the latest outbreak was bad news for the community.

"I am absolutely devastated and I feel absolutely devastated for the farming community because they are, in fact, just beginning to recover from the effects of [the last outbreak of] foot-and-mouth."

An automatic European Union ban on cattle exports from Britain is to come into force, the government has said.

Very few human cases of foot-and-mouth disease have ever been recorded. The last human case in the UK occurred in 1966.