Foot and Mouth Disease :: FMD confirmed at slaughter on suspicion site, UK

Positive test results for Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) have now been confirmed at the site where it was decided that cattle should be slaughtered on suspicion earlier this evening.

The affected animals are within the existing Protection Zone and this now becomes the sixth Infected Premises since 3rd_August this year.

Minor changes have now been made to the Protection Zone (PZ) and Surveillance Zone (SZ) in the area.

The three most recent FMD confirmations were all on farms near the town of Egham, where the virus reemerged less than a week after the United Kingdom’s chief veterinarian announced on Sep 7 that the disease had been eradicated in the area. The disease had been confirmed on two other Surrey farms in early August.

Today the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said FMD is suspected on still another farm in Surrey. After a veterinary inspection on a farm within the existing protection zone, officials decided to slaughter the farm’s cattle, the agency said. It was not known how soon test results for the cattle would be available.

The latest confirmed outbreak near Egham was announced Sep 18. Yesterday DEFRA said the strain found there, type 01 BFS67, matched the strain in all the other recent outbreaks. Officials believe the cases have resulted from a leak at an FMD laboratory facility in nearby Pirbright that houses a commercial vaccine producer and a government-funded research institute.

On Sep 19, officials reported suspicious symptoms in cattle on a farm in Solihull, near Birmingham, about 100 miles from Egham. But yesterday the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said lab tests had excluded the disease.

A temporary control zone had been set up around the Solihull farm as a precaution. The farmer alerted authorities when he noticed one of his bulls was frothing at the mouth, which is a possible sign of the disease, the Birmingham Mail reported.


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