UK Foot-and-Mouth Cases to Reach 4,000 by June

UK Foot-and-Mouth Cases to Reach 4,000 by June

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Britain was heading for a "very large epidemic" of foot-and-mouth disease with a total of 4,000 projected cases by June, a government report warned on Friday.

The study compiled for the Ministry of Agriculture said there was a need for "further drastic action," otherwise foot-and-mouth cases "will become established in Britain."

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown has said the government was undecided on whether to extend nationwide the pre-emptive cull of healthy animals within two miles of infected farms or opt for vaccination.

With 21 new cases recorded on Friday, the total confirmed cases now stand at 501, with the number of UK animals condemned for slaughter currently at 435,000.

The government report's findings came as European leaders meet at the EU Summit in Stockholm to discuss the best ways of containing the spread of the disease.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is also expected to use the summit to appeal for more continental vets to join the fight against foot- and-mouth disease.

The official UK report estimated that the disease would grow fast in the next few weeks and "continue for many months" in spite of the current controls.

One of the official report authors, Professor Mark Woolhouse from the University of Edinburgh, said the disease was clearly " out of control" and other options needed to be considered to tackle it.

The scale of the outbreak was already poised to exceed that of 1967, but animal health experts who helped compile the report said the two outbreaks were quite different.

This time, they warned, more of the UK was infected with the disease by sheep, a cause of major concern.

The European Union food safety commissioner, David Byrne, has called for every farm animal in Europe to be tagged to prevent a repeat of the outbreak.