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Foot and Mouth Disease in cattle, Surrey

This news story was last substantively updated on 8 August 2007. For later news on this story please see Defra's news story index and/or the Foot and Mouth Disease website.

Further updates, 7 August:

  • The Health and Safety Executive have published their Initial Report of potential breaches to bio-security at the Pirbright Site 2007. The Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, has made a statement in response to the HSE initial report. (published 20:20)
  • Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds has this morning announced that laboratory results have confirmed a positive result for Foot and Mouth Disease at the site in Surrey where slaughter on suspicion began on Monday evening, 6 August. She said:

    "This is the second infected premises. An announcement will follow later today confirming arrangements for the protection and surveillance zones." (published 09:30)
  • Minor changes have now been made to the protection zones and surveillance zone in the area. See the Foot and Mouth Disease website for details. (published 16:45)
  • Following confirmation of the second case the Chief Veterinary Officer has taken a decision to close the footpaths and bridleways in the first Protection Zone. See the Foot and Mouth Disease website for details (published 21:00)

Further updates, 6 August:

  • Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds has set out the latest progress on tackling the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in Surrey. See Defra news release (published 17.35)
  • As part of their surveillance activity within the larger Protection Zone, Animal Health have identified a further herd of cattle which have clinical signs of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds has therefore ordered their slaughter on suspicion of FMD. Animal Health staff are on site and the cull of the animals will begin as soon as practicable. Samples have been taken to the laboratory for testing to confirm disease. See Defra news release (published 21.20)

 

On 3 August UK Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds confirmed the presence of Foot and Mouth Disease on a farm near Guildford, in Surrey.

The Foot and Mouth Disease strain identified has not been found in animals recently. It is most similar to strains used in international diagnostic laboratories and in vaccine production, including at the Pirbright site shared by the Institute of Animal Health and Merial Animal Health Ltd, a pharmaceutical company. The present indications are that this strain is a 01 BFS67 – like virus, isolated in the 1967 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in Great Britain. 

In line with normal procedures, the infected premises and the Pirbright site are covered by 3km protection zones, with a single 10km radius surveillance zone beyond it.

From 22:00 on 3 August, a national ban came into force across Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) to prevent the movement of susceptible animals. In both the protection and surveillance zones, there will be requirements for increased levels of biosecurity on farms, cleansing and disinfection of vehicles, people and machinery moving on/off farms.

On 4 August the cattle on the infected farm were culled. This included the 38 cattle from the infected premises, and cattle on two additional sites from the same farming enterprise. The cattle on the additional sites, both within the surveillance zone, showed no clinical signs of Foot and Mouth Disease but were culled in line with normal procedure and tested. Results have revealed that, of the additional animals slaughtered, one of them tested positive for Foot and Mouth Disease. As a precaution because of potentially dangerous contacts, susceptible animals on one farm located next door to the field have also been culled.

Immediate action was taken to identify the source of the infection. An investigation led by the Health and Safety Executive at the Institute for Animal Health and Merial is currently taking place.

In addition, an urgent independent review into biosecurity arrangements at both sites has been commissioned led by Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial College. It will report to Hilary Benn and Debby Reynolds.

Page last modified: 10 August 2007
Page published: 6 August 2007

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs