Foot-and-mouth disease detected in Britain

London, Aug.4:
Britain today imposed a nationwide ban on movement of livestock including cattle and pigs, hours after detecting foot-and-mouth disease in cattle in Surrey to prevent a repeat of the 2001 epidemic.

Vets began culling of around 64 cattle at a small farm near Guildford in Surrey after the animals tested positive for the disease.

All livestock within a 3-kilometre radius of the farm were being tested and a 10-kilometre surveillance zone was put in place last night.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn cut short their summer holidays to travel back to London to take stock of the situation.

Brown held an meeting of the Government's emergency committee, Cobra, by video conference last night, as officials discussed measures to deal with the outbreak.

Ports in Northern Ireland were closed to all animal movement from Britain. The rest of the European Union countries were also expected to block imports from here.

Officials are desperate to avoid a recurrence of the disease outbreak in 2001, when more than 6.5 million animals were killed that cost eight billion pounds to the economy.

Many farmers believe that a three-day delay in halting the movement of cattle last time was responsible for the outbreak's devastating effects.

Farmers said they were "hoping and praying" that this was an isolated incident and that the lessons of 2001 had been learned.