Twelve new cases of foot-and-mouth disease have been confirmed in Britain today bringing the number of outbreaks there to 139, with a 140th case awaiting confirmation by the Ministry of Agricultur.
The Scottish Executive confirmed another case of foot-and-mouth, this time at Gretna House farm, near Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway.
It is the fourth confirmed case in Scotland today and atotal of 20 farms in Scotland have now been hit by the disease.
Earlier today, Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Mr Jim Scudamore acknowledged today that the scale of the foot and mouth outbreak had come as a shock.
But Mr Scudamore insisted the government had not taken any risks.
He told the BBC: "I have to say that we have been taken by surprise by the extent of an outbreak. It is a very rapid spread throughout the whole country."
But he added: "We haven't taken any risks. We had a complete ban on movements of animals - since then we have looked at each case one by one, we have looked at the risks involved, and we have taken steps to minimise those.
"So the movements that are taking place now are direct from farm to slaughter. So they are not mixing, they are not able to spread disease."
So far 82,000 animals had been culled of the 114,000 earmarked for slaughter.
PA