MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK: Bid to find cause of virus outbreak

Farmers described the new case of FAM as a “hammer-blow” to the industry

Scientists are trying to find the cause of the latest foot-and-mouth outbreak and establish whether it is the same strain which infected herds last month.

The infection of cattle on farmland in Egham, Surrey, came just a week after the Government declared Britain to be free of the disease and has shocked the farming industry. Nevertheless preliminary tests show the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth involves the same strain as that which infected herds last month. A second cull of animals on land next to the farm was also ordered Wednesday night on suspicion they too had been infected following animal health inspections after the first outbreak. Experts at the Institute of Animal Health (IAH) in Pirbright, Surrey, are now working to identify the strain of the virus to see if the two outbreaks are connected. The Government-funded institute was the focus of the investigation into how the disease was spread to two herds in August and faulty pipework on the site was later blamed. But this has now been repaired and the IAH has already said there is currently no evidence to say how the latest farm was infected or to suggest any further leaks from Pirbright. Professor Brian Spratt, of Imperial College London, produced a report into the biosecurity leak at Pirbright which led to last month's outbreak. He said the Egham case was likely to involve the same strain of virus. "It's very concerning and very depressing because I think that Defra put in place all the right measures and a week and a half ago they seemed to have it completely under control and everybody was congratulating Defra on a fantastic job of controlling this outbreak," he said. "Now it all seems to have gone completely wrong and we've got to find out what the reason for it is." The Prime Minister has expressed his sympathy for rural communities following a new outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a farm near Chertsey, Surrey. Speaking to reporters in Downing Street, Mr Brown said that he fully understood the "difficulties there for farming communities" and that there would be an "immediate and intensive" checking of animals for traces of the virus. He said: "I can say that I do sympathise and understand the anxieties and worries that the farming community will have this evening, and that is why our first priority will be to contain, control and eradicate Foot & Mouth Disease. That is why we have also agreed an extensive zone of protection, and that has already been designated. "I think the farming community will understand that a national ban on the movement of animals is necessary as a precaution just as the precaution of culling of animals that we have already agreed." The PM added that the Government would do everything iit could "to get to the root cause" of the outbreak and to "control and eradicate" the disease. Culling was underway on the affected premises and will continue "as necessary", he said. Earlier the Prime Minister chaired a meeting of COBRA, the Government's civil emergencies committee, as the outbreak was confirmed as foot and mouth by the Department for Food Environment and Rural Affairs. DEFRA also confirmed that a national ban on the movement of livestock was in force and that an exclusion zone had been established around the infected farm. The latest incidence of the disease is about 10 miles from the two previous cases near Pirbright, which are thought to have been caused by a leak from laboratories there. Protection and surveillance zones are now in place to try to contain it and most of Windsor Great Park, which is inside the 10km surveillance zone, has been closed to the public. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said there is now a nationwide movement ban on cattle, sheep, pigs and other susceptible animals and restrictions on livestock markets and shows and the movement of animal carcasses. Farming leaders described the latest case of foot-and-mouth as a "hammer-blow" to the industry, coming just days after the UK was given the all-clear.