Further livestock cull on Beacons

Thousands of sheep have been slaughtered in the Brecon Beacons

More sheep are to be gathered and culled on the Brecon Beacons despite no new cases of foot-and-mouth.

Welsh Agriculture Minister Carwyn Jones last week said the massive firebreak cull which saw thousands of sheep slaughtered appeared to have worked.

This has nothing to do with disease control -it's more like a selective cull

Farmer Brychan Stephens

But local farmers were furious to learn that the rest of the sheep would be gathered and killed on Monday.

They were further annoyed to hear that sheep on the neighbouring Buckland Common - which had been in contact with those earmarked for slaughter - were to be tested and released.

"This has nothing to do with disease control," said Brychan Stephens, who is refusing to let 40 of his animals be killed.

"It's more like a selective cull. It's not about foot-and-mouth, it's about clearing the Beacons of sheep - otherwise those on Buckland would be killed as well.

Crisis so far

Total confirmed cases UK-wide 1,960 - with 118 in Wales

Powys - 78

Anglesey - 13

Monmouthshire - 20

Caerphilly - 2

Rhondda Cynon Taff - 1

Neath Port Talbot -1

Newport - 3

"They are picking which ones live and die. They slaughtered thousands of healthy animals using the European stock reduction fund to pay compensation.

"It's a win-win situation for the government which collects tax from the compensation and gets to change the future of hill farming without any debate."

An Assembly spokeswoman said those to be culled were "stragglers" left over from previous culls.

"It could be a couple of hundred sheep but it will certainly not be thousands," she said.

Meanwhile, experts have warned the disease could drag on for many more months.

Farmers are urged to continue with disinfection precautions

Epidemiologist Dr Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College, London, has warned that the crisis would be harder to control in the poorer weather of autumn and winter if the disease was not eradicated.

He also said foot-and-mouth disease had continued longer than expected because strict movement restrictions and hygiene rules had been breached by some farmers.

In Northumberland, an inquiry is under way into how foot-and-mouth disease entered the area after an absence of three months.

Three new cases, two of them discovered within 24 hours of each other, have led to "draconian" new controls being imposed on the movement of animals.

Transferred

The decision is a huge blow to farmers who had been hopeful of a recovery and it has led to fears of a new outbreak in the region.

The farmers involved in the latest cases were reported to have bought animals from Hexham market, raising the possibility that infected animals could also have been transferred to other farms.

About 30 extra vets are to be drafted in to inspect an estimated 130 additional farms to which the disease may have spread, within a 10km radius of the premises.