Brussels, 12/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - A further case of foot-and-mouth has been confirmed in Surrey, south-eastern England, not far from the site of the August outbreak, it was announced on Wednesday 12 September by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Given this latest case, EU veterinarians and heads of state have taken a stance to keep the protection measures in place in order to contain the disease. The borders of EU countries therefore remain closed to cattle or meat products from the United Kingdom. Only the day before, on 11 September, however, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) had spoken out in favour of fully lifting the embargo currently in place on 10 November (EUROPE 9499).
On Wednesday 12 September, as soon as there was a suspected further outbreak of foot-and-mouth, the European Commission suspended the procedure for adopting the decision, approved the day before by the Standing Committee, on making the measures to combat this epizootic more flexible. Given the discovery of another case, the British authorities have put a national movement ban in place to prevent the disease from spreading, as well as a protection zone (radius of 3 km around the site of the outbreak) and surveillance zone (10 km around the contaminated farm). The farm which is contaminated by foot-and-mouth is located in Egham, Surrey, 20 km from the village of Normandy, the site of the first outbreak on 3 August. Egham is also located barely 15 km from the Pirbright site, where there is an animal research site suspected of having been at the origin of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth. (lc)