Second foot-and-mouth outbreak confirmed

Tests have confirmed that there has been a second outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK, British Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said today.

Chief vet Debby Reynolds said last night that cattle on a second farm within the protection zone in Surrey, England were being culled on suspicion that they were carrying the disease.

Mr Benn told BBC Breakfast today: “The chief veterinary officer will confirm shortly this morning that the tests that were done overnight on the samples taken from the animals culled does confirm foot-and-mouth.”

It is not known whether the source of the second outbreak was the first affected farm, near the village of Normandy, outside Guildford in Surrey, or the research institute in nearby Pirbright that has been linked to the infections.

Mr Benn said the speed with which the second outbreak was identified showed measures to control the disease were working.

He said: “It shows that the arrangements that we have put in place in the protection and surveillance zones have worked to identify this further outbreak in view of this new development.

“It is a result of the visits that were paid by veterinary staff and vets to premises. They noticed yesterday clinical signs of foot-and-mouth in the animals. A swift decision was taken to cull them and the tests were done overnight.

“It is within the protection zone, and it shows the continuing need for vigilance.”

The farmer on whose land the second case was found appealed today for footpaths in the area to be closed.

Laurence Matthews also criticised the lack of information made available to farms in the immediate vicinity of the outbreak.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the slaughtered cows belonged to a “devastated” fellow farmer who grazed his livestock there.

He said: “We were starting to think this virus had been contained and maybe we were going to be getting back to normality in a few weeks.

“Now this has set us back again and most farmers, and I’ve been speaking to a few, are very, very scared and all activity on farms is also coming to a standstill.”

Mr Matthews, who was among local farmers who met the Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he visited the area yesterday, repeated his demand for paths within 3km to be shut.

Two footpaths go through the field where the latest infected animals were kept, he pointed out.

“We were under the illusion, wrongly, that footpaths would be closed within the exclusion zone. They haven’t been.

“I still appeal now to Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn: could they please have these footpaths closed?

“Life in the countryside throughout the rest of the country can go on, people can visit the countryside and use the footpaths. We are not even asking that footpaths be closed within the 10km zone.

“We are asking within the exclusion zone that they be closed temporarily until we find out that every farm has been visited, – and they haven’t been yet,” Mr Matthews said.

Questioned about this criticism that the public are being allowed to ramble along footpaths, Mr Benn told BBC Breakfast: “Footpaths that are connected to infected premises are closed and other footpaths may be closed based on the veterinary assessment on the ground of the risk.

“They may also be closed because of operations that are taking place on the ground. In the light of this latest development relating to the second premises, then a decision will be taken to close the appropriate footpaths around them.”

Another 50 cows are thought to be involved in the second case, adding to the 97 already slaughtered on the first farm over the weekend after the disease was discovered last week.

Experts working on a Health and Safety Executive investigation into the outbreak are expected to reveal their initial findings today.

The inquiry has focused so far on the research facility in Pirbright, which stores the disease for use in vaccines, and an outcry from the farming industry is likely if it is confirmed as the source.

The laboratory is shared between the Institute for Animal Health (IAH), a diagnostic and research centre, and pharmaceutical company Merial Animal Health, whose work includes manufacturing vaccines.

Both organisations use the strain of the virus detected in slaughtered cattle at the first farm, but both have insisted there was no evidence of breaches in biosecurity at their labs.

Mr Benn said it was still too early to say what caused the outbreak and he appealed for people to “let the experts get on with their job”.

He told Sky News: “As far as the source of the outbreak is concerned, yes, all of the effort is of course focusing on the facilities at the Pirbright site, but we don’t yet know.

“We plan later today to receive the first report of the inspection team that have been working there over the last couple of days to try and find out what may – and I underline the word ’may’ – have gone on.”