Suspect German sheep slaughtered

Sheep at a small west German farm have been slaughtered over fears they came into contact with animals showing possible symptoms of foot-and-mouth.

Hesse state's social affairs ministry said the 31 sheep were found as authorities awaited test results from 10 sheep from a nearby farm in the town of Krofdorf-Gleiberg.

Those animals showed the typical foot-and-mouth symptoms of fever, listlessness and blisters on their hooves. Both sites were sealed off as a precaution.

Germany is nervously anticipating an outbreak of the virulent livestock disease, which has devastated British herds and spread to Europe. Twelve cases have been found in the Netherlands since March 21.

On Tuesday, initial foot-and-mouth tests on about 100 piglets from a farm near the Dutch border came out negative.

Officials had described that case as the strongest suspicion yet of an outbreak in Germany. A number of previous scares turned out to be false alarms.