Confirmed Foot-and-Mouth Cases Top 300 in BritainThe British government was stepping up pressure on farmers to accept a pre-emptive cull, as confirmed foot-and-mouth cases stood reached 309 on Sunday and it is estimated the outbreak will cost the UK economy 9 billion pounds (13 billion US dollars).The government's chief vet Jim Scudamore said the current outbreak was already more severe than the last one to affect Britain. "Just three weeks into this outbreak we are already looking at 278,000 animals affected," he said. "In the six months the 1967 outbreak lasted, only 400,000 animals were affected, which shows the severity of this." He told BBC that without a pre-emptive cull, "the potential source of infection ... will remain there and it will cause considerable problems". It could act as a "focus of disease and infection" which could spill over into Cumbria and the rest of the country, he said. Eleven further cases of foot-and-mouth were confirmed on Sunday, bringing the total across the UK to 309. The cull of healthy animals, planned as a pre-emptive strike to halt the disease spread, began on Saturday on two farms in Scotland. The Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said the 9 billion pound cost to the country would result from loss of earnings, higher food prices and the impact on tourism. |
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