Second Foot & Mouth Outbreak At Government Site

A “PROBABLE” new leak of foot and mouth has been discovered at the exact location where an outbreak of the virus was first found in August. The virus is believed to have escaped through a leaking valve at the Merial Animal Health facility in Pirbright, Surrey, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said today.

Mr Benn told the Commons that despite the discovery of the disease, Defra's inspectors at the site have confirmed that the virus has not been released into the environment and has been contained in the drainage system.

The Pirbright site, which also contains the Government’s Institute for Animal Health, was the source of the foot and mouth outbreak in August and cost the farming industry an estimated £100 million. Mr Benn told MPs that it was “probable” that the “live FMD virus [was released] into the contained drainage system.” (Daily Express)

New foot and mouth cases suspected

All the sheep on a farm in southern England will be slaughtered after blood tests suggested they had contracted foot and mouth disease, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

The sheep are on a farm inside the protection zone west of London set up last week when a new outbreak of the disease was discovered and hundreds of pigs and cattle were culled.

"Initial blood tests on clinically healthy sheep on a farm within the Protection Zone suggest exposure to FMD (foot and mouth disease)," the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its Web site. These animals were identified as part of the surveillance work that is being carried out in the area. All animals on the premises are being slaughtered on suspicion. Further laboratory tests are ongoing," it said.

Two nearby sites were hit last week by foot and mouth. The first of those came less than 24 hours after EU veterinary experts agreed to declare Britain free of foot and mouth from November 9 and lift an export ban -- imposed after the disease was found on two farms in July and August. (Reuters)

Foot And Mouth Cull Continues In Surrey

Sky News Headline; says: 'More cattle are expected to be culled today as officials battle to bring the latest foot and mouth outbreak under control. The ongoing slaughter follows confirmation that cattle culled on a second farm tested positive for the disease.

The farm, near Egham, Surrey, where animals were slaughtered on Thursday on suspicion of infection, is adjacent to the first infected premises, Defra said. The case comes after tests indicated the virus strain in the current foot and mouth outbreak is the same as that which infected two herds last month.

The second cull of animals took place on Thursday on Stroude Farm where 800 pigs and 40 cattle were killed.

Pirbright strain link to outbreak

Tests have shown that the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey involves the same strain that infected herds last month. Chief vet Debby Reynolds said the strain found at Egham was "generally" the same as the strain from Pirbright research site, 10 miles away. The government is facing criticism that it was too quick to declare Britain foot-and-mouth free last week.

The infected cattle in the latest outbreak are on a farm 10 miles from the Pirbright site, and the disease was confirmed only a week after the previous restrictions on cattle movements were lifted. Surrey County Council said the area at the centre of the outbreak is grazing land attached to Milton Park farm, while the animals on the land are owned by Hardwick Park farm. A 10km (6.2 mile) control zone has been set up around the area. Cattle and pigs at another farm nearby were also being slaughtered on suspicion of infection, Defra said. (BBC News)

New foot-and-mouth case confirmed

BBC News Headline; says: 'A new case of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed in Surrey, the government has said. Chief vet Dr Debby Reynolds confirmed the outbreak near Milton Park Farm, near Egham. A 10km control zone has been set up around the site. Cattle and pigs on an adjacent farm are also being slaughtered "on suspicion" of infection, Defra said later.

The European Union has reimposed a ban on UK meat and livestock exports, and a national movement ban is in place. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government had acted swiftly, and the outbreak was under control.

Meanwhile, vets in Norfolk are investigating a sick animal as a precautionary measure. Government sources said a temporary control zone has been established around the unidentified location in Norfolk. A sheep which was tested in Scotland for the virus was found to be clear of foot-and-mouth. The prime minister said the government's first priority was to "contain, control and eradicate" the disease.

Mr Brown said he sympathised with livestock farmers but that they would understand the need for a swift response. "At all times we will be absolutely vigilant - both in looking for the root causes and controlling and eradicating this disease," he said. He rejected criticisms that the government responses to this outbreak of foot-and-mouth had been too late.

The movement restrictions came into force while livestock sales were taking place around the country. About 1,300 cattle are stranded in Carlisle, but farmers in Bakewell, Derbyshire, have been granted a temporary licence to move at least 8,000 sheep.

Foot and Mouth update: temporary control zones lifted

Farmers will be able to move calving cows under certain conditions as of 00.01 Saturday 18 August 2007 in a further relaxation of Foot & Mouth Disease movement restrictions.

After extensive discussions with industry representatives, on Friday evening, 17 August. Defra’s Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds issued a new movement licence to help resolve animal welfare issues that have arisen in the dairy sector during the current Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.

Based on further negative laboratory results for Foot and Mouth Disease and supporting veterinary advice, the decision has been taken to lift the two Temporary Control Zones in Kent and Surrey this evening.

The lifting of the Temporary Control Zones, combined with no further changes in the disease situation elsewhere means that the vaccination teams will be stood down from their current level of alert. Teams could be stood up again in five days, if needed.

Information on the latest situation on the Food and Mouth Disease outbreak can be found on the Defra website at: www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth

No vaccination despite another possible foot and mouth outbreak

Dail Mail Headline; says: ' Pressure was growing on the Government to vaccinate thousands of cattle against food and mouth disease as vets investigated a third outbreak. If confirmed, the new case, at a farm in Wotton, near Dorking, will be the first outside the initial "surveillance zone". However, Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds today said the Government had decided not to vaccinate cattle in the area, despite having team of vets ready to administer injections standing by.

"This is the seventh day of foot and mouth, and it is a critical one. From 6 August we have had vaccination centres up and running just outside the surveillance zone," she said." However, we have decided not to vaccinate at this time. It is a decision that is under constant review, and the vaccination centres will remain in place.

If cattle are vaccinated, under EU rules they could not be exported for six months. However, experts today warned the Government was running out of time.

Fears Grow Of Third Virus Outbreak

Sky News Headline; says: 'Fears are growing of a new foot and mouth outbreak after a temporary control zone was put in place away from the original cases in Surrey. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) set up a 3km-radius protection and surveillance area outside a 10km zone already surrounding two infected farms.

It followed an "inconclusive assessment" of symptoms in cattle.

Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said: "This is a developing disease situation. The containment and eradication of foot and mouth disease remains our priority. This is why we have moved swiftly to put in place a temporary control zone while we investigate this development. At this stage disease has not been confirmed, laboratory results will follow."

The new zone is to the west of Dorking and close to the two confirmed cases of the disease.

Deadly Legionnaire's disease found at foot and mouth lab

Daily Mail Headline; says: 'A man who worked in a lab at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak has been found to be infected with Legionnaires' disease. The Health Protection Agency said today that additional tests are being carried out at the government-run Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright following the discovery. The bacterial disease, which can cause pneumonia, is spread through the air in droplets of contaminated water, often from air conditioning or showers. It can be fatal.

Water samples taken from the laboratory are being checked. Officials will also trace everywhere the man has been in the 10 to 14 days before he fell ill.

A second disease inside the exclusion zone thrown around the lab and neighbouring Merial vaccines factory could raise fresh fears about bio-security at the Surrey site. Early findings from the investigation, which looked at the laboratory building in which the man worked, suggest the institute was carrying out all necessary maintenance work.

More Cattle Culling Ordered Over Disease

Sky News Headline; says: ' Cattle are to be culled on a third Surrey farm over fears of a fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease. It comes as some restrictions were eased on the movement of animals imposed in the wake of the scare.Transporting live animals to slaughterhouses and collecting dead animals from farms will both be allowed from midnight. But officials stress these will only be permitted outside the protection zone in Surrey.The Welsh and Scottish governments have also announced similar moves. The latest farm to come under the spotlight is adjacent to the second farm where the disease was discovered. Meanwhile, experts are checking whether the foot and mouth outbreak was caused by sabotage linked to a nearby laboratory site. A Health and Safety Executive preliminary report said there were various potential routes for "accidental or deliberate transfer of material from the site".

Was Foot And Mouth Outbreak Deliberate?

Sky News Headline; says; 'Experts are checking whether a foot and mouth outbreak at two Surrey farms was caused by sabotage linked to a nearby laboratory site. A Health and Safety Executive preliminary report concluded that there were various potential routes for "accidental or deliberate transfer of material from the site". It said: "Release by human movement must also be considered a real possibility. Further investigation of the above issues is required and is being urgently pursued."

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn admitted the Government has to look at the possibility the outbreak in Surrey was the result of deliberate human contamination.

Foot And Mouth: "Lab Link Probable"

Sky News Headline; says: 'An official investigation into the outbreak of foot and mouth disease has suggested there is a "strong probability" the strain originated from the nearby Pirbright laboratory facility in Surrey. The Health and Safety Executive's initial report was inconclusive, but also found there was a "real possibility" the disease was spread by human movement. The HSE report did not narrow down the likely source further to either the Merial Animal Health part of the Pirbright site or to the part run by the Institute for Animal Health. But it added that the chances that the outbreak of the disease was caused by flooding or aerial transmission were "negligible".

Following the HSE report, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there was a "major effort to isolate the disease and the causes of the disease".

New outbreak of foot and mouth disease

Daily Mail Headline; says: ' A suspected new case of foot and mouth disease has been found close to the original outbreak. Debby Reynolds, the Government's Chief Veterinary Officer, said the outbreak had been found in the original 3km protection zone established after the first case was confirmed on Friday. Fifty cattle were culled last night after they were identified with clinical signs of the disease by animal health staff carrying out surveillance within the larger of the two protection zones in Surrey. It was unclear last night if the new outbreak was on a site belonging to Derrick Pride, owner of the farm where last week's outbreak occurred, or whether it was on a new farm.

Miss Reynolds said: "Obviously this is devastating news for anybody who owns animals. We have a great deal of uncertainty and the situation means we are in the very early stages of dealing with it."

The news came after it was revealed yesterday that the institute at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak was involved in five major health and safety breaches in the past year.

Six months ago the Institute for Animal Health was ordered to abandon experiments on TB-infected cattle following the discovery of flaws at its high-security isolation units. The safety failing happened at Compton in Berkshire, a sister lab to the foot and mouth research centre at Pirbright, Surrey, which is currently under suspicion of leaking the virus. If the same error had happened at Pirbright, it could have released foot and mouth into the countryside.

Today inspectors are due to publish their report into whether the foot and mouth outbreak came from a leak at the institute or the privately-owned Merial vaccine factory next door.

Another Disaster Looming?

Daily Mail Headline; 'Plume of foot and mouth virus casts 30-mile shadow of fear' says: 'A plume of foot and mouth virus could have infected farms 30 miles from the initial outbreak, a vaccine expert warned yesterday. Professor Ian Jones said: "We know that this virus can, in the right conditions, spread for up to 30 miles on the air."

He added that while sunlight and warmth kill the virus, the colder wet conditions of the last few months were perfect for it to have dispersed from the suspected source in Surrey. "It could have spread as far as the south coast, or northwards across London."

Foot and mouth disease takes a week to show itself - meaning the extent of the crisis will not be fully known until next weekend. But the outbreak in the village of Normandy, near Wanborough, has already had disastrous consequences. Britain will today be placed in quarantine by the rest of the world with a ban on the import of our meat, dairy products and livestock.

The measures could cost farmers and food manufacturers more than £15 million a week for at least three months. Tourist chiefs also fear a repeat of 2001, when the industry lost £900million after officials warned holidaymakers to stay away from the British countryside.

Not Something Easy To Forget ...

I watch the current developing news story, regarding the Foot and Mouth 'outbreak' in the UK, with horror. I for one can still remember the awful events which unfolded in the UK back in 2001. It was terrible ... an understatement - it was horrific and terribly sad.

At the time we were still living on the outskirts of Manchester. My role as a Quantity Surveyor meant I had to travel daily to construction sites all around the Greater Manchester area & all around Northern Lancashire.

I can still remember one particular day quite vividly. On that day, which was at the time of the appalling burning pyres which were all over the UK, I had to deliver a tender in Blackburn. This meant driving through open countryside close by to Chorley. My journey took me right past a farm; in fact right past a burning 'pyre' ... which was sending a cloud of white smoke high up into the sky. The stench was unbearable. Even in the car ... I could smell it. As I passed the field I felt sick. It was an awful sight to see the carcasses of Cows being thrown into the flames and the white smoke reaching ever higher.

Even back home later in the day ... I could smell the same sickly odour of burning flesh on the air. It was not very pleasant. Not at all. The smell seemed to hang everywhere in our lives at the time ... in our clothes, on the air we had to breathe. There was nowhere to escape those appalling events ... it was on the TV, it was in discussions in the village we lived; at work ... it became etched in our minds. Something which cannot be forgotten easily.

I can remember too ... the first outbreak had not been long after the desperate days of the barricading of petrol refineries. The weeks of petrol stations having no fuel. Yes, it was not a good time to have been in the UK. I only hope this Foot And Mouth outbreak can be prevented before it becomes of similar proportion to 2001. Somehow, I don't think it will ....

Outbreak Linked To Foot And Mouth Lab

Sky News Headline; says: 'The foot and mouth outbreak at a farm in Surrey may have been caused by a leak from a nearby animal research laboratory. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)said the virus is the same as one being used at Pirbright Laboratory, just a few miles from the farm. Defra could not say definitely if the laboratory was the source of the disease, but immediately increased the size of the protection zones covering farms in the area.

Experts said the strain was not one recently found in animals, but was similar to ones used in diagnostic laboratories and vaccine production. In a statement, Defra said: "The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67-like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot and mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain." The strain is present at the Pirbright site's Institute of Animal Health and was used in a vaccine batch manufactured last month, Defra said.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "If there is evidence that this outbreak has come out of Pirbright Laboratory, a full inquiry into the laboratory's bio-security must be carried out urgently and immediately."

Some 60 cattle at the infected farm, close to the village of Wanborough,near Guildford, were culled and their bodies taken away for incineration. Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said a cull had also taken place on an adjacent premises which had been identified as having "dangerous contact" with the infected herd.

A UK-wide ban on the movement of all livestock is in place to stop the spread of the disease.

PM To Chair Foot and Mouth Meeting

Daily Express Headline; says: 'An emergency operation to halt a new epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease has swung into action as farmers reeled at the confirmation of a fresh outbreak. Prime Minister Gordon Brown cancelled his holiday after being told the disease had been found on a farm near Guildford, Surrey, and will chair a second emergency Government meeting at the Cabinet Office later. Meanwhile, a nationwide ban on the movement of all sheep, cattle and pigs was put in place. The outbreak raised the spectre of the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001, which brought chaos to Britain and left farming and tourist industries devastated. Tim Bonner, spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said: "Farmers around the country will be hoping and praying that this is an isolated incident and that the disease is not already widespread, because last time when we found out about it, it was already everywhere.

"We hope and pray that the lessons from last time have been learned. The handling of the crisis in 2001 was an unmitigated disaster."

UK: Foot And Mouth Outbreak At Surrey Farm

Sky News Headline: says; 'A fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease has been confirmed leaving the rural community fearing a repeat of the 2001 epidemic that brought chaos to Britain. A spokesman for Defra said animals on a farm near Guildford in Surrey had tested positive for the disease. The Defra spokesman said: "On the basis of initial laboratory results, Debby Reynolds, UK Chief Veterinary Officer, has confirmed Foot and Mouth Disease."

In accordance with the legislation, all the cattle on the premises will be culled, he said. Defra refused to be any more precise about the farm's location, however the Surrey Advertiser newspaper said it was in Elstead. A protection zone, three kilometres in radius, and a surveillance zone of 10 kilometres has been placed around the premises. A national movement ban of all ruminants and pigs has been imposed.

A meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency contingencies committee has been held to discuss the outbreak, with Prime Minister taking part by telephone from his holiday in Dorset.