New disease restrictions in Settle area

8 June 2001



New disease restrictions in Settle area

By FWi staff

MOVEMENT restrictions have been extended yet again in the Settle and Clitheroe area in a bid beat foot-and-mouth.

As the number of cases in the region reached 56 on Thursday (7 June), the Ministry of Agriculture decided on further action to control the spread of the disease.

MAFF has announced that the ban on animal movements has been extended up to Sedbergh and Leyburn in the north and Preston and Blackburn in the south.

The area will be flanked by the M6 in the west and the A1 in the east.

Movement restrictions will apply with immediate effect to all journeys which begin or end in the expanded area.

Licences to move animals directly to slaughter and under the Livestock Welfare Disposal Scheme will continue to be available.

Occupational licences which allow repeated movements of animals within single premises will also remain valid.

Meanwhile, a farm in Somerset has been culled out as a precautionary step after animals showed symptoms of foot-and-mouth.

Ministry officials have confirmed that animals were culled on a farm between Bridgwater and Taunton on Thursday evening.

Up until now, Somerset has escaped the worst of the epidemic. There have only been four confirmed cases in the county to date, the last of which was on 4 May.