Initial Testing of English Farm Has Positive Results

LONDON - Mar 4/02 - STAT -- Fears of a possible second breakout of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in England were eased, as initial tests came back negative.

According to the USDA Ag Attache office in London, concerns over a possible outbreak of FMD were raised on the afternoon of February 26 when the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) took the precautionary measure of banning livestock movements in an 8 kilometer radius around a farm at Hawnby, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire after suspect lesions were found in the mouths of two sheep.

Following last year's FMD outbreak, which saw 2,026 confirmed cases of the disease and almost 10,000 farms depopulated, restocking is now underway subject to strict procedures designed to highlight any residual infection. So-called sentinel herds are the first to be put on a premise following its cleansing and disinfection and these animals are subject to close veterinary supervision. The two sheep involved in this scare are part of just such a 450-strong sentinel herd on a farm which neighbored an infected premise and as a consequence was slaughtered out last August as part of a contiguous cull. Both farms are reportedly under the same ownership. The suspect mouth lesions were spotted during a routine inspection of the farm.

Following the discovery of the suspect lesions, the farm was sealed off, samples were taken from all of the sheep in the herd and, as a precautionary measure, the two suspect sheep were slaughtered.

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