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Britain's Foot-and-Mouth Disease "Fully Under Control"
The British government's chief scientific adviser David King said on Thursday that the foot-and- mouth outbreak was "fully under control".
Professor King said there had been a significant drop in the daily number of reported cases in the last two weeks.
He also gave his backing to the government's policy of culling infected livestock within 24 hours and animals on neighboring farms within 48 hours, which he said was working.
His comments came as the government and farmers continue to deliberate over whether to vaccinate animals against the disease.
"On the basis of the fall in the number of cases being reported, the epidemic now is fully under control," he said.
The government's culling policy had been criticized by a group of vets in Devon who described it as a "catalogue of disasters".
Prof King said, however, that even in the worst affected area, Cumbria, figures were better than expected. "The disease is not spreading quite as rapidly through livestock as our model had originally shown."
He pointed out that in Devon the number of cases was not falling as quickly as predicted. But he said that might be because the culling of animals on neighboring farms had not been as extensive as in other areas.
The number of daily confirmed cases of the disease was declining by half every fortnight. At the end of March, the average total was 43 cases a day. This had fallen to 27 by last Sunday, King said.
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