Foot-and-mouth fight stepped up
22 February 2001
Foot-and-mouth fight stepped up
By Alistair Driver and Johann Tasker
MOVEMENT restrictions are expected to be imposed on hundreds of farms that supplied the abattoir at the centre of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.
The restrictions are set to be placed on an estimated 600 pig farms which have sent animals to Cheale Meats, near Brentwood, Essex, within the past fortnight.
A Meat and Livestock Commission spokesman said he expected the Ministry of Agriculture to make the announcement on Wednesday (22 February).
It is understood that MAFF officials believe that the controls are a price worth paying in an attempt to stop foot-and-mouth disease spreading to more farms.
Cheale Meats slaughters about 60% of all cull sows in the country. The restrictions would prevent affected farms moving any livestock from their farms.
Similar restriction zones imposed to control swine fever last year in East Anglia caused huge financial problems for farmers and a welfare crisis for pigs.
Any tightening of restrictions is likely to spark increased calls from farmers.
The National Pig Association has warned that livestock farmers with healthy animals trapped in movement restriction areas could be driven to bankruptcy.
Confirmed cases of the disease have so far only been found at the Cheale Meats abattoir and a neighbouring farm owned by the same family.
Existing livestock movement restrictions have already been increased to 10 miles around the infected premises by the Declaration of an Infected Area.
But veterinary experts are no nearer tracking down the origin of the outbreak and are examining a sixth suspect case at an abattoir at Guildford, Surrey.
Earlier, agriculture minister Nick Brown said that a suspect case on a farm near Stroud, Gloucestershire, had turned out to be a false alarm.
Exclusion zones are still in force at two farms in Buckinghamshire, one farm on the Isle of Wight and a farm at Goole, East Yorkshire.