Suspect FMD case in UK
northern England was sealed off after a cow was found to be
displaying symptoms associated with foot-and-mouth disease
Britain's farmers were back on red alert on Thursday when a farm in northern England was sealed off after a cow was found to be displaying symptoms associated with foot-and-mouth disease.
Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said movement restrictions were imposed in an 8-kilometre zone around a farm at High Worsall in North Yorkshire after vets noticed symptoms of the disease in the animal. "One animal was showing signs that while not completely consistent with the disease...vets could not absolutely rule out from being foot-and-mouth," a ministry official said.
Samples had been sent for testing and initial results were expected on Friday, the spokesman said. None of the cattle at the farm had been slaughtered.
The farm at the centre of the scare was hit during last year's foot-and-mouth outbreak, which resulted in the slaughter of millions of animals and losses to the British economy estimated at more than two billion pounds.Veterinarians were inspecting new livestock as the farm began to restock.
"This is the second time we have had a suspect case during the re-stocking process and we are hopeful that, like the last time, it will be proved negative," the spokesman said.
Britain's National Farmers Union (NFU) said that while the suspect case was worrying, it was not unexpected."It's a real shock but at this stage we're keeping our fingers crossed," the spokesman said.
The latest scare comes more than six months after the last confirmed case of foot-and-mouth in Britain and nearly three months after the country was finally declared free of the world's worst outbreak.The highly infectious disease poses no threat to human health but can devastate livestock herds.
