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80 Foot-and-Mouth Cases Confirmed in Britain
Six new cases of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed in Britain on Tuesday, as restrictions on the movement of some livestock was lifted.
Further outbreaks identified in County Durham and Devon means the number of confirmed cases has now risen to 80 across the country, with a second suspected case under investigation on Dartmoor.
Government veterinarians said the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak should peak within the next few days before starting to decline.
Farmers desperate to move livestock free of the disease have been granted special licenses to take their animals to abattoirs.
Agricultural ministry officials said 40,000 animals have now been slaughtered, but the final total will be around 80,000.
Chief veterinary officer Jim Scudamore has attacked speculation that the current policy of slaughtering thousands of farm animals is unnecessary.
Scudamore said more time was needed to assess how the epidemic was progressing but it should be clear within about a week whether the ban on moving livestock, imposed on February 23, had worked.
He said it would be at least 30 days without any new recorded cases before Britain could safely say it was free of the virus.
In Northern Ireland, more sheep and cattle were slaughtered after a foot-and-mouth outbreak which was last week confirmed on a farm in South Armagh.
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