Chief vet faces angry farmers over mass cull

LONDON - Britain's chief vet, Jim Scudamore, was last night facing his critics in an attempt to persuade farmers to go ahead with a mass cull of healthy animals.

Scudamore, who has been the Government's main source of advice on how to handle the foot-and-mouth crisis, was meeting farmers and vets in the worst-struck areas of Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway.

He is hoping to calm their fears about, and explain the need for, the destruction of half a million healthy animals. Farmers in the northwest have been the most vocal critics of the drastic policy. Cumbria has been hit hardest by the outbreak, with 86 cases. Dumfries and Galloway has 46 recorded cases and Devon 43.

Across Britain, the total number of properties affected is 323, only one month after the first case was detected.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, who had previously insisted that the outbreak was under control, admitted yesterday that it would take at least three months to ensure livestock were free of the disease once the outbreak had been halted.

While the cull has been halted in the English northwest, about 1800 healthy Scottish sheep in Morayshire and Aberdeenshire have already been killed.

Scudamore conceded the outbreak was worse than 1967. "Just three weeks into this outbreak we are already looking at 278,000 animals affected. In the six months the 1967 outbreak lasted, only 400,000 animals were affected."

National Farmers' Union president Ben Gill warned that the restriction on animal movements was likely to continue until the end of the year.

The Queen is also now believed to have joined the debate on the handling of the crisis and urged horse racing officials to suspend all events until the disease has been stopped.

- AGENCIES

Herald Online feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

UK outbreak map

World organisation for animal health

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature

Virus databases online