Protests after blood from culled sheep flows onto busy road

A community has expressed its outrage after blood from hundreds of slaughtered infected sheep flowed onto a busy road.

A driver noticed the contaminated water washing onto the B4080 Bredon to Tewkesbury road in Gloucestershire after recent torrential downpours and contacted police.

Officers discovered the blood was flowing from the carcasses of hundreds of culled sheep at Mitton Lodge Farm in Tewkesbury.

They alerted the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which closed the road until Monday to disinfect it with the help of the Army.

Maff officials said the move was precautionary and claimed the risk of spreading the disease that way was minimal.

But farm owner Stewart Pearman said the community was up in arms.

He had 2,500 sheep slaughtered at Mitton Lodge and nearby Gellesters Farm after an outbreak was confirmed earlier this week.

Mr Pearman said: "There are a lot of very angry people locally."

A Maff spokesman said: "Foot-and-mouth is passed from live contact. The likelihood of catching it from a dead animal is significantly reduced. I do not know about the chances of catching it from blood."