Swansea among five new cases in Britain

Five new cases of foot-and-mouth were confirmed in Britain yesterday, including one in a previously unaffected area of Wales.

More than 500 cattle were culled on a farm near Swansea in southern Wales, which had been a disease-free area. The outbreak brought to 75 the number of cases in Wales and to 1,431 the number in Britain.

The president of the Welsh National Farmers' Union, Mr Hugh Richards, said government assurances that the disease was under control could be causing people to drop their guard.

"This latest case, well outside any infected areas, is a big blow," he said. It comes despite claims by the government's chief scientific adviser, Mr David King, that the disease was "fully under control".

Four fresh outbreaks were reported in England, all of them in areas which have previously been affected. One was confirmed at a farm close to Conservative leader Mr William Hague's home in Catterick, North Yorkshire.

Oxfordshire became the third previously infected county to be declared foot-and-mouth free.

Meanwhile, the Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, has conceded the Government is facing problems disposing of carcasses in Devon, where a backlog of 175,000 carcasses has built up. A mass burial site is being prepared but it is not expected to be ready for another fortnight.

A pyre of infected animals was dismantled yesterday amid fears that smoke from burning carcasses could poison the atmosphere with cancer-causing chemicals. North Cumbria Health Authority asked the Ministry of Agriculture to reconsider lighting a number of pyres until the Department of Health confirmed the risk to local health was minimal.

It was decided one unlit pyre of approximately 750 sheep and cows in Langrigg, Cumbria, should be dismantled and the carcasses buried.

In a separate development, the Ministry of Agriculture was yesterday investigating a map-reading error which led to the unnecessary slaughter of 500 sheep. Government vets killed the livestock in Cumbria, but an error in a grid reference meant they had been 100 miles off target.