Two previously infected English counties, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire were officially declared free of the foot and mouth virus yesterday, evidence, says Professor David King, that the outbreak of the disease is now “fully under control.”
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Speaking yesterday King, the government’s chief scientist, gave a positive outlook to the end of the foot and mouth epidemic. He revealed that the contentious policy of culling infected livestock within a day and animals on neighbouring farms within 48 hours was working, citing that the number of new cases being reported is falling faster than expected.
At the end of March, he explained, 43 new cases were appearing every day. By last Sunday there were 27 and yesterday just 14 were reported. He also revealed that in the worst affected area, Cumbria, figures on new cases were better than expected and the army was finally on top of the slaughter programme, disposing of the animals at the same rate that they are killed.
Farmers remain sceptic of King’s remarks. Farmers groups said that the government should be careful about making such statements, and the figures cited by King are misleading due to time lags in collating data from local Maff offices. The rate of the epidemic and how effective control methods are vary dramatically between the counties. The farmers point out that the two counties now declared clear only reported four cases of foot and mouth, and it could be several more months before the worst affected regions are also free of the virus.
The Institute of Directors commented today that the disease has already cost the UK economy £20bn. If the epidemic continues past July, that figure could double, it warned.
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