The government and farmers unions have agreed on the additional movement of animals on welfare grounds as the foot and mouth crisis continues to grip the UK.
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Restrictions on the movement of livestock during the foot and mouth crisis have been eased to allow pregnant animals currently left out in the open to be brought back to farms to give birth and for cattle to be milked. Carcasses of culled animals will also be shipped in sealed containers to rendering plants for burning rather than being left lying in fields.
The confirmed number of cases in the UK’s foot-and-mouth outbreak now stands at 120. It had been hoped that the ban on livestock movements would see the discovery of new cases tail off as the foot-and-mouth infection incubates in livestock for a maximum of a fortnight, but Chief veterinary officer Jim Scudamore warned farmers on Thursday that the spread of the disease was ‘far from over’.
Scudamore said officials were still trying to trace the movements of sheep that passed through Longtown market in Cumbria, especially farmers who bought sheep in deals outside the official market sales rings.
“We want people to come forward because our priority is to find the disease and trace sheep,” he said.
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By GlobalDataMinistry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food official believe the disease seems to be spreading most rapidly among cattle that have come into contact with sheep carrying the virus. The disease is hard to spot in sheep, which can become carriers of the bug after recovery for up to nine weeks.
Restrictions were still in place on 144 farms pending ongoing investigations, while a total of 73,000 animals have now been culled and 27,000 were awaiting slaughter on Friday.
just-food.com published a feature on foot and mouth. To read it, click here.
