Second case of bluetongue confirmed in UK
A surveillance zone has been put in place to monitor bluetongue after a second animal was found to have contracted the disease at the British farm where the UK's first case of the disease was discovered.
The cow at the Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm, near Ipswich, Suffolk, was slaughtered after the discovery was made by vets, the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
A spokeswoman said: "The evidence remained insufficient to confirm an outbreak."
Tests are continuing on farm animals and midges in Suffolk to see if bluetongue, which is transmitted by biting insects, has spread any further.
A seventh case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed yesterday, and is within the existing Egham Protection Zone in Surrey.
Restrictions on the movement of livestock will be relaxed across most of the UK but will remain in force in south-east England.
The risk of foot-and-mouth spreading in Wales, Scotland and much of England is now considered low and from 3.30pm on Tuesday, some movement restrictions will be relaxed, allowing farm-to-farm movements.
Chief vet Debby Reynolds said: "Our aim is to get farming back to normal when the risk is acceptable to do so." She said livestock markets will not go ahead this week.
Restrictions will remain in the "risk" area which comprises the counties of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Berkshire, Greater London, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex.
The president of ICSA (Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association), Malcolm Thompson, said that confirmation of the seventh case of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK is disappointing but not surprising, and indicates strongly that the British authorities have failed to control the disease.
"As regards the second confirmed case of Bluetongue, we were more or less expecting it," he said. "Irish farmers can only hope for a hard frost to ward off the advance of the virus."
The National Farmers' Union in Britain welcomed the relaxation of the movement restrictions in the low risk zones.
President Peter Kendall said: "This will come as a huge relief to livestock farmers who desperately need to move or sell their animals, and should at least reduce the danger of this becoming a welfare and economic crisis for many farmers."
