Chief vet visits farmers to explain mass cull
Britain's chief vet Jim Scudamore is visiting Cumbria to explain the Government's planned pre-emptive slaughter of up to 500,000 healthy animals to farmers.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's cull of healthy animals in Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway has been put on hold until Mr Scudamore's visit.
The number of confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK continues its steady rise to 323.
Agriculture minister Nick Brown warned the three-week-old outbreak is likely to persist for "several months".
Mr Scudamore said the outbreak would be far more severe than that in 1967, with 278,000 animals already affected in the current outbreak, compared with a total of 400,000 by the end of the 1960s epidemic.
National Farmers' Union president Ben Gill said he believed movement restrictions on some livestock, and certainly on sheep, would continue until the end of the year.
Visiting Cumbria on Sunday, deputy agriculture minister Joyce Quin said the farmers she met were very concerned about the planned cull and were looking forward to further discussions with Mr Scudamore in Carlisle.
"I hope that there will be a greater understanding on both sides and we can proceed, as we very much want to, with co-operation.
"There is huge support for the overall strategy of eradicating the disease and I believe that we will be able to work together in a co-operative spirit," she said.
Mr Brown said a lack of vets was hindering attempts to speed up diagnosis of the disease and the slaughter and disposal of animals.
