Britain hopes foot-and-mouth disease contained, despite new report

London - 8/10/2007 - Despite a possible new case of foot-and-mouth disease just miles from the original one several days ago, British health officials believe they have the situation confined to a small area of southwest England.

"We have restricted the disease to a limited area of this country. The risk of it spreading out of these areas is low if not negligible," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters.

The farmer at the latest suspected site, in the county of Surrey about nine miles from two farms where cases were confirmed and a third one where some cattle were killed as a precaution, said he noticed some possible mild signs of the illness in a few calves. "But the veterinarian was sure this was not foot-and-mouth," Laurence Matthews, of the village of Wotten, told reporters, adding that test results, expected within 24 hours, "hopefully will not show foot-and-mouth at this farm."

The nation's chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, said initial indications are "that infection may be contained to the Surrey area," within a 1.8-mile zone.

Officials cited a "strong possibility" that the outbreak spread from the Pirbright laboratory complex southwest of London by human movement. Pirbright houses Merial Animal Health and Britain's Institute of Animal Health. Merial said there was no sign of a biosecurity breach at its vaccine-production facility.

Several countries banned imports of British meat products, and Britain itself voluntarily suspended exports and so far has slaughtered more than 570 cows, to protect against a possible major outbreak like one in 2001 when 7 million animals were destroyed, heavily impacting tourism and agriculture.