How did the foot-and-mouth virus spread?
UK - Cheif veterinary officer Debby Reynolds announced to the assembled media with a smile that she was ‘satisfied that foot-and-mouth disease has been eradicated from the UK in 2007’.Then on Friday, disease was confirmed in cattle at the neighbouring Stroude Farm, after about 50 cattle and 900 pigs had been slaughtered on suspicion.
The next outbreak – the fifth since August 3 – was confirmed on Tuesday in a small herd of about 20 cattle at the Klondyke, next to Stroude Farm and inside the 3km Protection Zone. Their flock of about 20 sheep had been exposed to the virus but disease was not confirmed in sheep as FG went to press.
But how did the virus – not seen anywhere since early August – suddenly reappear?
The answer to this is crucial to establishing the level of risk facing farmers in Surrey, and the rest of the country. Yet by Wednesday, Defra appeared to have no firm idea as how the virus got to the Egham area.
Source: Farmers Guardian