Surging foot-and-mouth epidemic strikes hard

LONDON - Wales will cull more sheep infected with foot and mouth disease, and thousands more animals were tested in England yesterday in what officials say is a big blow to Britain's costly fight against the epidemic.

Officials in two so-called disease hotspots - the Brecon Beacons in Wales and Yorkshire in northern England - say they are worried the number of cases is about to rise, dragging the epidemic into winter.

Scientists have warned that the onset of cooler weather, leading to the transfer of animals from fields to sheds might trigger a new spate of disease outbreaks.

A spokeswoman for the National Farmers Union (NFU) in Wales, Leigh Roberts, said a further 1700 sheep would be slaughtered after testing positive for the disease, adding to the 4000 culled last week.

"We are all absolutely terrified, really, because the blood tests that have come back so far show that the disease is there, and these sheep roam over a wide area."

Janet Bayley, of the National Foot and Mouth lobby group, said the cull would devastate Wales.

"The current control policies of slaughter and cull are tearing the heart out of the Welsh hills and their communities ... These flocks are irreplaceable, some go back 2000 years," she said.

In North Yorkshire, between 30,000 and 50,000 sheep were tested for the disease. Tougher preventive measures are being used in what has all but become a disinfectant-sealed area to protect large pig herds.

Rob Simpson, a spokesman for the NFU in the region, said there were about 350,000 sheep, 500,000 pigs and 113,000 cattle in the so-called biosecurity area.

The Government has become increasingly jumpy about the cost of fighting the epidemic, which has led to the slaughter of more than 3.6 million animals and has hit almost 2000 farms.

A Government spokeswoman said Britain had spent £1.2 billion ($4.14 billion) on combating the disease but expected the bill to rise to £2.3 billion.

- REUTERS

Feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

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