69 F and M cases confirmed in UK

The number of confirmed foot and mouth cases has risen to 69 across Britain and Northern Ireland.

But the Ministry of Agriculture says it has no details of locations for the latest cases at present.

There are 68 cases on the mainland and one in Northern Ireland.

Earlier, MAFF vets identified three new cases in Devon, three in Tyne and Wear, one in Scotland and one in Cornwall.

At a briefing earlier, officials say there are 53,700 animals earmarked for slaughter as a result of the epidemic.

Deputy chief veterinary officer Richard Cawthorne refused to speculate on whether the outbreak had reached its peak.

But he says it is relatively self-limiting disease which could be kept under control by tight restrictions.

"What we are looking at at the moment is a situation where the disease is not spreading by being transmitted directly or by wind-borne means.

"But it is still being distributed among sheep as the sheep are incubating it."

UK Junior Agriculture Minister Baroness Hayman said there were still no new confirmed cases in Europe.

One suspected case in Belgium had been eliminated, but MAFF has no news on the progress of a suspicious case in Denmark.