Foot and mouth disease has been detected in a second herd of
cattle in southern Britain, raising fears the highly damaging
animal virus is spreading.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said culling of animals had
already begun at the farm, which was within a 6 mile protection
zone set up around a farm where foot and mouth cases were first
found last week.
"The chief veterinary officer will confirm shortly ... that the
tests that were done overnight on the samples taken ... confirm
foot and mouth," Benn told the British Broadcasting Corp. "We've
got to keep on top of this outbreak and make sure it doesn't spread
anywhere else."
Foot and mouth disease can be carried by the wind and affects
cloven-hoofed animals. The disease? was confirmed in a small
herd of cattle on a farm in Surrey, southwest of London, on Friday.
The cattle were destroyed and protection zones enforced.
It was the first outbreak of the disease in Britain since 2001,
when the illness caused devastation among the farming community.
More than six million animals were burned on vast funeral pyres and
the crisis cost agriculture and the rural tourism industry around
US$17 billion.
Following the discovery of the disease on Friday, the European
Union banned all British exports of fresh meat, live animals and
milk products. Britain's exports of meat are worth more than 1
billion dollars a year.
It is still not clear how the outbreak of the disease began, but
investigators are focusing on two animal research labs -- one run
by the government, the other private -- sited about five miles from
where the disease erupted.
They are also considering the possibility that recent heavy
floods across central and parts of southern Britain may have
contributed to the transmission of the virus.
(Xinhua News Agency via Agencies August 8, 2007)