LONDON – Tests confirmed a second outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease southwest of London, Britain's environment secretary said Tuesday, raising fears the highly contagious virus could spread to herds across southern England.
A second batch of cows, tested late Monday, were within the initial two-mile-radius protection zone set up Friday around the farm where a first group of infected cattle was found, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said.
The first outbreak occurred just four miles from a laboratory that produces vaccines containing the same rarely seen strain of foot-and-mouth disease, officials said.
Benn was expecting an initial report Tuesday following checks to see whether there have been breaches in security or safety at the laboratory, which is the main focus of the investigation into the outbreak.
But Roger Pride, who runs the farm near Godalming in southern England, where the first outbreak was confirmed, said he believed contamination of a local sewer could be behind the cases.
The outbreaks follow widespread flooding, and investigators are examining the possibility that the waters might have helped spread the virus.
"The theory that the sewer which overflows into part of the field where the 38 cattle were grazing could be the cause is an obvious possibility," Pride said. He said no one at the infected farm had any contact with the vaccine laboratory.
Pride said staff at the farm realized there was a problem when they noticed that the cattle were "off color and drooling.''
"For a moment we couldn't believe it. We were completely shocked and devastated," he said. "It felt as if our whole world was turned upside-down.''
News of a second confirmed outbreak fed fears of a repeat of 2001, when a foot-and-mouth epidemic led to the slaughter of seven million animals, devastating agriculture and rural tourism.
"We were starting to think this virus had been contained and maybe we were going to be getting back to normality in a few weeks," farmer Laurence Matthews, who owns the farm where the second infected herd grazed, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio Tuesday.
"Now this has set us back again and most farmers, and I've been speaking to a few, are very, very scared," he said. Matthews, who met Prime Minister Gordon Brown when the leader toured the region Monday, said the infected cows belonged to a fellow farmer who used his land.
Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said Monday the strain found in the first herd matched samples taken during Britain's 1967 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The strain had not been seen in animals for a long time, but was used to produce vaccines, she said.
The vaccine laboratory is shared by the government's Institute for Animal Health, or IAH, and a private pharmaceutical company, Merial Animal Health, the British arm of Duluth, Ga.-based Merial Ltd.
Merial said it found no evidence of a breach in biosecurity, and the IAH claimed a check of records found "limited use" of the virus in the past four weeks.
Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals, including cows, sheep, pigs and goats, but does not typically affect humans.
The first herd of around 120 cows from a farm in Normandy, outside Guildford, was slaughtered Saturday after the virus was identified and confirmed in two animals, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said. It said a total of 199 cows have been culled.
Pride first noticed signs of the illness in his cows on July 29 and notified authorities on Thursday, according to a government report filed to the World Organization for Animal Health.
Britain has banned the export of livestock, meat and milk – a decision endorsed by the European Commission. The commission also backed London's decision to halt the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs nationwide to prevent the spread of the virus.
Imports of British pigs and pork products have been banned by the United States, Japan, Russia and South Korea in response to the outbreak. The U.S. and Japan already have bans in place on British beef imports.
