Foot and mouth case suspected in England

A NEW suspect case of foot and mouth disease on a beef farm in south western England was described by Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh yesterday as a particular concern.

A farm near Liskeard, Cornwall, has been isolated after a bull exhibited symptoms that could be the highly contagious disease.

“Since the outbreak last year we have adopted a precautionary approach,” said a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in London.

Samples from lesions around the bull’s mouth have been taken for testing. A total ban has been imposed on livestock movements within a five-mile radius of the farm, while the tests, which can take up to four days to produce a result, were carried out.

There have been a series of false alarms about the disease in Britain since the massive outbreak last year that effectively shut down the countryside and resulted in the slaughter of millions of cattle, pigs and sheep.

“We have had a whole catalogue of these and they have all turned out to be false alarms. We hope that this one is too,” the DEFRA spokesman said.

Minister Walsh told reporters at the ploughing championships in Ballacolla, Co Laois, he was concerned because exotic diseases have been prevalent in the EU in the last few years.

The last foot and mouth outbreak in Britain was caused by food that came into the country from the Far East.

“We just have to be vigilant. Any of these suspect cases re-inforces that commitment to vigilance that we should have at all times”, he said.

Minister Walsh said some people feel that they can throw away the Jeyes Fluid, now that the crisis was over, as they saw it. But that was not the case.

“Eternal vigilance is what is needed in relation to exotic diseases and their prevention in Ireland,” he said.

Mr Walsh reminded farmers, who are the primary custodians of their own enterprises, that biosecurity measures on their farms were as important today as they were last year.

He also urged personnel of the various agencies on duties at access points to Ireland to remain vigilant as well.

The ploughing championships, which attracted an opening day record 55,000 people to Ballacolla in brilliant sunshine, were not staged last year because of the foot and mouth scare at that time.

It was reported last night that initial blood tests on the bull in Cornwall, which showed possible symptoms of foot and mouth, had proved negative.