Cattle slaughtered at fourth farm

Defra officials are at the farm
Forty cattle have been slaughtered at a farm on the Surrey-Berkshire border, after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed there.

The whole herd at Beaumont College farm in Old Windsor tested positive, said the Department for the Environment.

It is the fourth case of the disease in the area in two weeks and is within the previous 3km protection zone, which has been extended into east Berkshire.

The chief vet said farmers remained the "front line of defence".

Dr Debby Reynolds added that farmers should also check cattle "twice daily".

'Vigilance all important'

Part of the Queen's estate at Windsor has come within the protection zone.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown chaired a meeting of the government's Cobra emergencies committee in Whitehall to discuss the latest developments on foot-and-mouth, before heading to the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth.

Dr Reynolds, speaking after the meeting, told BBC News 24 that the farmer in the latest outbreak had reported suspicions and the farm was visited promptly by animal health officials and the cattle slaughtered on suspicion.

"The vigilance of farmers is all important," she said.

"They are the absolute front line of defence and in partnership with animal health will intensify and obviously work in that protection zone, to see if there is any other evidence of local spread."

Asked whether the government was on top of the situation to find where the outbreak was coming from she said: "It is under constant examination and investigation by epidemiologists."

She confirmed the protection zone and surveillance zones had both been extended northwards slightly and said animal health patrols of cattle were taking place daily.

In addition, the government was working on identifying those parts of the country where movements from Surrey have been traced to give opportunity for "further risk-based staged approaches to movement controls".

'Devastating effect'

The vice-chairman of the Surrey branch of the National Farmers' Union, Bert Broom, said: "I wouldn't be surprised if we have six or seven cases within hopefully what will remain a small cluster in terms of the numbers of the disease and the sort of coverage of the disease."

BBC correspondent Helena Wilkinson said it was not yet known if this strain was the same 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.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Chris Huhne wants the government to consider a temporary ban on work with dangerous viruses like foot-and-mouth.

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.

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