13 people test negative for foot-and-mouth

A group of 13 people, feared to be infected with foot-and-mouth, have been given the all-clear after medical tests.

The British Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) said tests have proved negative.

But a spokesman said two more people are being tested, bringing the total thought to have contracted foot-and-mouth to 15.

The announcement came after the farm worker thought to have been the first person to catch foot-and-mouth during the current crisis tested negative.

Paul Stamper, from Cumbria, who was splashed with fluid from a slaughtered cow as he helped move carcasses, had been given the all-clear.

The PHLS spokesman said it was "very unlikely" that those who had tested negative would have the disease.

Follow-up blood tests to check for the presence of viral antibodies would need to be completed two weeks after the illness was first suspected in each case to confirm these initial results.

One of the negative cases was shown to have contracted a human enterovirus, an infection in humans which gives similar symptoms to foot-and-mouth, the PHLS spokesman said.

"Others haven't been found to have other viruses, but haven't got foot-and-mouth either," he said.