Farm infected with foot-and-mouth

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Farm infected with foot-and-mouth


Defra officials are working at the farm near Guildford


A UK-wide ban on movement of all livestock is in place after cattle at a farm in Surrey were found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease.

Some 60 animals on the farm close to the village of Wanborough near Guildford have tested positive for the disease which wreaked havoc in 2001.

A 3km protection zone has been put in place around the premises.

Gordon Brown cancelled his holiday in Dorset and took part in a meeting of government's Cobra emergency committee.

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

In accordance with legislation, all cattle on the Surrey premises will be culled and incinerated, UK Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said.


A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone are in place




The farm has been under restrictions since late on Thursday when symptoms were reported.

Ms Reynolds confirmed the outbreak after samples were taken from the farm.

She said: "We are trying to form a picture of where the infection may have come from but at the moment it's very early stages.

"It is the absolute priority at the moment to prevent further spread, and piece together information about how it might have got there in the first place."

Gordon Brown is returning to London on Saturday and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn is to break off from his holiday in Italy.

The Cobra committee is reconvening on Saturday to review latest developments.

Ms Reynolds advised farmers across the UK to examine their animals carefully and immediately report anything suspicious.

As well as the 3km protection zone, there is also a 10km surveillance zone where nearby animals are monitored.

The outbreak in 2001 led to between 6.5 million and 10 million animals being destroyed and cost as much as £8.5bn. Many farms and other rural businesses were ruined, and the UK's tourist industry was severely hit.

The Cabinet Office Minister, Ed Miliband, said there had been a co-ordinated response to the outbreak: "We have had a contingency plan in place following the 2001 outbreak. There have been exercises in relation to that."

He said an automatic European Union exports ban would come into place immediately.

A European Commission spokesman said the EC would adopt an emergency decision on Monday "confirming the measures being applied concerning restrictions on the movement of animals and the dispatch of products" from the UK.

'Ultra-vigilant'

National Farmers' Union President Peter Kendall said of the latest incident: "We have to ensure this is a small isolated incident. We are working with the government to ensure the right steps are taken."

And Hugh Brown, of Surrey NFU, said farmers in the county would be "ultra-vigilant for spotting any signs of abnormality on their farms".

Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of microbiology at Aberdeen University, said: "Speed is of the essence here.

"We have got to really stop this virus spreading, obviously first of all to stamp it out in the locality where it has been identified and then see whether the virus has got anywhere else."

Tim Bonner, from the Countryside Alliance, said: "Even the words 'foot-and-mouth' will send a chill through the spine of every farmer in the country."

The Welsh Assembly government said no link to Wales from the infected premises had been identified.

A number of agricultural shows across the UK are going ahead this weekend without cows, sheep and goats, due to foot-and-mouth restrictions.

Meanwhile, in Cumbria, one of the areas hardest hit by the 2001 outbreak, the Cockermouth and District Agricultural Show, due to take place on Saturday, has been cancelled.

Defra has set up a helpline in response to the latest outbreak on 08459 335577.

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Aw no, not again

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Disease lab faces safety inquiry


The protection zone in Surrey has been extended



Health and safety inspectors are to visit the research facility identified as a possible source of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey.
The strain of the disease found is identical to that used for vaccines at the Pirbright Laboratory.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said inspectors would check the facility, and an urgent review of bio security there would also be carried out.

He urged people to remain vigilant as the source had not been confirmed.

And he commended the authorities for their swift reaction to the outbreak at the farm, three miles from the Pirbright facility where the Institute of Animal Health is based.

Precautionary measures

Mr Benn told BBC News 24 Sunday the link to the laboratory was a "promising lead", but he added: "We don't know for sure, and therefore it's very important that people continue to be vigilant."

There had been reports of possible foot-and-mouth infection at four other farms, but these had all tested negative for the disease, he said.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has increased the size of the protection and surveillance zones covering farms in the area to 10km.

The strain of foot-and-mouth identified is not one normally found in animals but is used in vaccine production and in diagnostic laboratories.

In a statement, Defra said: "The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain."

The strain was used in a vaccine batch manufactured on 16 July by a private pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health.

The firm shares Pirbright with the government's Institute for Animal Health (IAH), which conducts research into foot-and-mouth and where the strain is also present.


Defra has revised the protection and surveillance zones


Merial voluntarily halted vaccine production as a precaution.

BBC science correspondent David Shukman said that if the virus did escape from the Pirbright laboratory, the question to ask was how.

He said: "Like the manufacture of any vaccine to defend against a virus, this one used samples of live virus in the production process.

"Experts speculate that either it escaped through the ventilation or possibly an employee carried it out accidentally on a boot or clothing."

Hopeful news

Microbiology expert Hugh Pennington said that if the source was identified as the Pirbright laboratory it could be welcome news.

He said: "If we know exactly where the virus has come from, and particularly if it's a vaccine type of virus, it's less likely to be a nasty virus.

"We know there isn't uncertainty about the source, so that means there isn't going to be virus in Cumbria or in Scotland, or in Wales from the same source as the virus that has caused this infection in Surrey, it's a localised problem."

The review of bio security measures at Pirbright will be led by Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial University, who will report back to Mr Benn.

Mr Benn also commended Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds for the swift response to the outbreak.

A revised 3km protection zone now encompasses both the infected farm premises and the Pirbright site, with the surveillance zone extending to a 10km radius.

Mr Benn said: "The lessons of foot-and-mouth in 2001 were in essence that you had to act quickly, you needed to have systems and you needed to follow the science. And that's exactly what we've done."

He pointed to the fact that a ban on animal movements was imposed in about three hours on Friday, as opposed to the three days it took in 2001.

There is also an 8km air exclusion zone around the site.

Some 64 cattle have since been culled at the infected farm, and there has been a cull of one other herd of cattle adjacent to the farm as a precautionary measure but there were no signs of infection in any animals there, Dr Reynolds confirmed.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is due to chair a third meeting of Cobra on Sunday morning.

The outbreak in 2001 led to between 6.5 million and 10 million animals being destroyed and cost as much as £8.5bn.

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