A second confirmed case of foot- and-mouth disease in Surrey, adjacent to the most recent outbreak there, has been described as "disappointing but not surprising" by Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan. Seán Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.
The Minister said yesterday she was aware that this herd had been culled on a precautionary basis on a premises adjacent to that on which a case of FMD was confirmed on Wednesday at Egham, near the Pirbright animal disease centre.
She said that the management committee of the department's National Disease Control Centre had met yesterday to review developments.
The committee had advised the Minister that, notwithstanding this second case at Egham, the existing controls, reinforced by Thursday's EU Commission decision, were adequate in the current circumstances, although the situation would continue to be kept under review.
While Ms Coughlan accepted that the controls were an "adequate response to the existing situation", she would not hesitate to introduce further controls if she considered them necessary.
She explained that departmental officials were in regular contact with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in London and with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Belfast.
Both departments had now traced all livestock movements since live trade resumed after the initial FMD cases in early August. All animals had been inspected by veterinary personnel and none had shown any signs of disease.
The Minister said that she would be discussing and reviewing the matter with senior officials over the weekend and with European ministerial colleagues at an EU Agriculture Council meeting in Portugal next week.
Earlier, before confirmation was received of the second case in Surrey, the Minister told journalists that a longer waiting period might be required in the future for Britain to be declared free of FMD. She was speaking at the annual conference of the Agricultural Science Association in Trim, Co Meath.
While she was satisfied at the way the British authorities had handled the outbreaks, people were wondering how, 35 or 36 days after the disease was initially discovered, another outbreak had occurred. She described this as a "wake-up call".
She said a ban on exports from Britain was a matter for the EU, as was the length of time a country would have to wait before exports were allowed after an outbreak of animal disease. "It was a great relief today to find that the Norfolk farm was cleared, and it would appear that the strain of the disease found on the Egham farm was similar to that found at the first outbreak," Ms Coughlan said. "It was also interesting that this farm was a very fragmented one, broken into at least eight units, which would indicate there had been a lot of movement between the farms, which may have been the cause of the outbreak."
The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Pádraig Walshe, said that the latest outbreak of FMD was not completely unexpected. Given the nature of the virus, he said that there might well be further suspect cases.
The general secretary of the Irish Cattle and Stockowners' Association, Eddie Punch, said a longer period of restriction on the export of British meat and livestock should be imposed on this occasion to safeguard other countries.