New cluster raises UK virus fears

YORKSHIRE, England -- Farmers in an area of northern England previously unaffected by the UK's recent foot-and-mouth epidemic fear their livelihoods are on the brink of being wiped out.

With Britain in the grip of a general election campaign, the foot-and-mouth issue had been knocked off the news agenda amid government assurances that the disease was under control.

But a cluster of 19 new cases has emerged in the previously unaffected Yorkshire Dales, raising the spectre of another mass slaughter and prompting Prime Minister Tony Blair to warn the public and farmers not to drop their guard.

The UK's chief vet, Jim Scudamore, said the new outbreak was being taken very seriously.

To add to the growing concern, the first case of foot-and-mouth in Scotland for nine days was confirmed on Wednesday.

Confirmation of the disease at a farm in Duns, in the Borders, made it the 184th case north of the border, a spokesman for the Scottish Executive said.

Officials had hoped the highly infectious livestock disease that has disrupted tourism and the UK meat trade was in decline, but the new outbreaks raise fears among experts that more is yet to come.

The Yorkshire cluster is centred around the town of Settle and a huge exclusion zone involving more than 1,000 farms across North Yorkshire and Lancashire has been set up.

"The predictions are that there will be many more cases to come," Rob Simpson, spokesman for the National Farmers' Union in the region, told Reuters.

"The joint coordinating committee (the Agriculture Ministry, the army, the NFU and veterinary bodies) estimated that we will have from five to 42 new cases by next week.

"If we have another 42 that will be quite an acceleration and would leave virtually no livestock left in the whole of the area."

Simpson put the total number of premises hit by the disease at 18, while the Agriculture Ministry said 19 farms had been infected.

Around 70,000 animals had already been slaughtered in the area, Simpson said.

A ministry spokesman said it was doing all it could to trace the source of the latest outbreak, first identified at three farms less than two weeks ago, and that it was trying to isolate and destroy the disease before it spread.

Across Britain, over 1,600 farms have been confirmed with foot-and-mouth since late February, while more than three million animals have been slaughtered.

Simpson said farmers felt their plight had been played down to convince potential voters in the June 7 election that the countryside was back to normal.

Following confirmation of the latest case in Scotland -- diagnosed on the grounds of a clinical inspection of 60 sheep -- a Scottish rural affairs spokesman said: "This is obviously a very disappointing development, but it was not unexpected.

"Sporadic cases were expected and this latest is in an area which has already seen a couple of cases.

"It shows the need for farmers and the rural community to remain vigilant for foot-and-mouth and to exercise care."

Blair, who earlier this month claimed the battle against the disease had "entered the home straight," said on Tuesday: "What we said was that the numbers of cases were coming down very considerably, as they obviously have done.

"But we also warned at the time that there would carry on being some cases of foot-and-mouth disease and that it was vitally important that people carry on taking the measures of security and safety to make sure the disease does not spread."