Foot-and-mouth toll to pass 2000

3 September 2001



Foot-and-mouth toll to pass 2000

By FWi staff

THE number of confirmed foot-and-mouth outbreaks is set to pass 2000, as the battle against the disease continues in the north of England.

There have now been 1997 confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth, said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on Monday (3 September).

Thousands more farms have had livestock slaughtered as dangerous contacts or because they are contiguous to holdings with a confirmed outbreak.

A foot-and-mouth blue box restriction zone in Northumberland was extended twice in as many days following a resurgence of the disease.

Government officials said the zone was originally 220 square-miles not 400-square miles as first reported. It has been extended to 320 square miles.

There have been 17 confirmed cases in the area within 10 days.

Food and Farming minister Lord Whitty said foot-and-mouth had probably gone unnoticed in Northumberland two or three weeks before being detected.

Theories that the latest outbreak had been brought into the region from Cumbria are growing less and less likely, the minister said.

The National Farmers Union reissued its plea for the government to tighten controls against illegal meat imports thought to have triggered the epidemic.

• Foot-and-mouth controls extended, FWi, 31 August 2001
• Army called in as disease spreads, FWi, 31 August 2001
• Ministers to consider vaccination, FWi, 31 August 2001
• Farm virus impact will last years, FWi, 30 August 2001
• Restricted farms hamper Scots status, FWi, 30 August 2001
• Inquiry chief linked to virus scare, FWi, 29 August 2001
• Scientists warn over movements, FWi, 29 August 2001