Foot and Mouth Disease in cattle, Surrey
| This news story was last substantively updated on 10 August 2007. For later news on this story please see Defra's news story index and/or the Foot and Mouth Disease website. |
Update: 10 August
- Debby Reynolds has announced a decision not to vaccinate at this time. However, this approach will be kept under constant review as the disease situation develops and the Forward Vaccination Centre will be kept in place.
- Defra has today published an interim epidemiology report into the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Surrey.
Debby Reynolds said:
“The decision not to vaccinate at this stage, but to retain our full readiness to do so, demonstrates that our contingency planning arrangements are working. The epidemiology report indicates that infection may be contained to the Surrey area. But, these are our emerging findings, this is a developing situation and new information may come to light at any stage which changes our understanding of the outbreak.”
Update: 9 August
- This evening a temporary control zone of three kilometres radius has been put around one premises in Surrey outside of the existing surveillance zone.
- This precautionary measure follows an inconclusive assessment of clinical symptoms by Animal Health veterinary staff. The national movement ban remains in place. In addition, in the temporary control zone, general licences will not apply for the movement of animals to slaughter and collection of dead animals from farms.
Update: 8 August
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The ban on movements of susceptible animals remains in place throughout Great Britain. However, in accordance with the contingency plan, a veterinary assessment of the risk from licensing these moves has been carried out. The decision has been taken to permit the movement of live animals direct to slaughter, and the collection of dead animals from farms from 00.01 hours on Thursday, 9 August. These general licences will only apply outside of the protection and surveillance zones.
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Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds has today ordered culling on suspicion of Foot and Mouth Disease on one farm adjacent to the second infected premises in the protection zone confirmed yesterday.
- Test results show that the strain of the virus found on the second infected premises is 01 BFS67-like strain - the same as the strain identified on the first farm on 4th August.
On 3 August UK Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds confirmed the presence of Foot and Mouth Disease on a farm near Guildford, in Surrey. A protection zone of three kilometres radius and a surveillance zone of 10 kilometres were placed around the premises.
On 6 August a second infected premises was confirmed on a farm within the protection zone. As a result, minor changes were made to the protection and surveillance zones.
Footpaths and bridleways in the first protection zone have been closed – but otherwise the countryside remains open. The national ban preventing the movement of susceptible animals across Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) remains in place. Please note that horses are not susceptible animals so are not covered by the ban, unless they are within the protection zone.
A derogation to allow land set-aside to be grazed or harvested for animal feed is being made available to farmers. This allows farmers to graze set-aside land with their own animals or harvest hay or silage for their own uses where it is necessary due to the movement restrictions and will remain in place until the end of the set-aside period (31 August).
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is leading an investigation at the nearby Pirbright site operated by the institute for Animal Health and Merial Animal Health Ltd. On 7 August they published their initial report, confirming the Foot and Mouth Disease strain found at the first infected premises was being worked on at the Pirbright site by both organisations.
Responding to the HSE initial report, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said:
“The report indicates that there was a negligible combined likelihood of an airborne release of virus from either site. The likelihood of a direct waterborne link between the infected farm and the shared site is also negligible. But further investigation is being carried out into the drainage on the Pirbright site. Release by human movement - which the report describes as a real possibility – will now be investigated further as a matter of urgency.”
Mr Benn reinforced the Government’s main priorities to contain the spread of the virus and identify how it started. He asked the Health and Safety Executive to report on their continuing investigations as soon as possible.
- Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn’s statement.
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 12:40
Page published: 8 August 2007