New foot-and-mouth case suspected

The Welsh Assembly has confirmed a suspected case of foot-and-mouth led to the slaughter of 170 sheep.

Government vets are investigating the possible outbreak on the Wales-England border.

Staff at Ross-on-Wye Livestock Market called in officials from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Tuesday after a consignment of lambs arrived from Wales.

The animals - which had come from south east Wales - were killed as a precautionary measure after they showed symptoms of the disease.

140 sheep were killed as a precaution after 40 lambs showed symptoms

Traces of the disease were spotted in nearly 40 lambs, which were on their way to an abattoir.

A further 130 sheep which arrived at the market at the same time were also slaughtered.

Blood samples have been taken for analysis and the results of the tests are expected in the next few days.

The lorry park near the market has been closed as a precautionary measure.

Elwyn Maddy, Chairman of the National Farmers Union in Hereford, said: "This could have devastating consequences and we are just hoping the tests prove negative.

"We are still a high risk county and we were desperately hoping we would move to the next step down as an at-risk county by the winter. This could change all that."

The Welsh Assembly confirmed the sheep came from a farm in Monmouthshire, but would not give a specific location.

Defra spokesman Andy Myatt said: "We can only speculate at the moment, but if the tests prove positive, the results will come back very quickly.

"If the tests prove negative, we have to prove it is not foot-and-mouth, which could take up to five to six days."

There have been no new cases of the disease reported in Wales since 12 August.

Up until then there had been 21 cases of foot-and-mouth in Monmouthshire and 78 in neighbouring Powys.

The county has been particularly badly hit by the outbreaks which culminated in the slaughter of more than 20,000 on Brecon Beacons National Park.

Powys has since been divided into "at risk" and "high risk" areas, after Welsh Rural Affairs Minister Carwyn Jones appealed to the government to change its ruling for blanket restrictions on the whole county.

Licenced farmers in counties in north and west Wales - now largely free of the virus - can sell animals to each other individually under new Defra rules announced last week.