Scots disease spreads
Scots disease spreads
EFFORTS to keep Scotlands cases of foot-and-mouth disease confined to Dumfries and Galloway started to crack late on Wednesday when the disease was confirmed on a farm in the neighbouring Borders region.
As farmers weekly went to press (Wed), the only information available was that the case was at Sorbietrees, Newcastleton, to the east of Langholm.
Earlier in the week, panic gripped East Lothian when a suspected case was investigated. Results of blood tests, however, proved negative.
Meanwhile, as confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth topped 100 in Dumfries and Galloway, bad weather mid-week halted plans to start burying slaughtered sheep in a mass grave.
Rain hampered the armys preparation of the site at Birkshaw Forest, south of Lockerbie, which will be capable of receiving 250,000 sheep carcasses.
But it was still hoped that the trenches in the forest could be completed and that burials could begin by the end of this week.
In Dumfries and Galloway, the army has taken charge of both the pre-emptive slaughter of up to 200,000 sheep in the region,
and the newly introduced contiguous cull, where all livestock will be slaughtered on farms that share boundaries with infected holdings.