Britain's chief vet shocked by foot and mouth outbreak

Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Jim Scudamore acknowledged that the scale of the foot and mouth outbreak had come as a shock.

He said over 100 cases had now been confirmed in a fortnight.

But Mr Scudamore insisted the Government had not taken any risks.

He said: "I have to say that we have been taken by surprise by the extent of an outbreak. It is a very rapid spread throughout the whole country."

But he added: "We haven't taken any risks. We had a complete ban on movements of animals - since then we have looked at each case one by one, we have looked at the risks involved, and we have taken steps to minimise those.

"So the movements that are taking place now are direct from farm to slaughter. So they are not mixing, they are not able to spread disease."

Mr Scudamore was reported to have criticised farmers for abusing the licensing system under which animals can be moved for slaughter purposes.

He said he believed the cases so far recorded were linked.

"At the moment, we are identifying outbreaks probably caused by the movement of sheep before the 23rd (of February), and then we are containing those outbreaks.

"Anyone in a situation like this would be worried. But as far as we can see at the moment, all the outbreaks do have a linkage. What we have got is widespread dissemination of virus. We have contained it to a large extent by stopping the movement of animals, and we are getting local appearance of that virus, which is what we have to stamp out in the localities it occurs in."