Welsh sheep cull completed

Thousands of sheep in Wales have been killed

CARDIFF, Wales -- A cull of 4,000 sheep on the Welsh Brecon Beacons has been completed in an attempt to stop the disease spreading across the national park.

Agriculture officials are now waiting for test results on more than 6,000 sheep to see if they have successfully stopped the disease.

The mass slaughter was ordered after random blood tests revealed a significant number of animals had been exposed to the virus.

Slaughter teams worked in specially constructed pens and tents set up on the side of the A470, the main route between south and north Wales.

A convoy of lorries is taking the carcasses to rendering plants in England.

The main mass of the Brecon Beacons National Park has been closed to the public.

Only the Black Mountain range to the west of the Beacons are still open to walkers, but the situation is said to be changing rapidly.

Welsh Rural Affairs Minister Carwyn Jones has defended the cull.

He said: "The interests of both tourism and farming mean that the sheep have to be culled. Sealing off the Beacons, without culling the sheep, is not an option.

"We cannot be certain that the disease would burn itself out, and there would also be an unacceptable risk of the disease escaping from the area.

"In addition, the Beacons would have to be shut to walkers. In the interests on tourism, this is simply not something that we could contemplate."

He added that vaccination was not an option because many of the sheep were already infected, and others would be incubating the disease.

"Culling is the only way to eradicate the disease quickly, and also by far the fastest way of getting the Beacons reopened for walkers and tourism," he told the Press Association.

The Farmers Union of Wales deputy president Glyn Powell fears that this cull may be the start of a much larger cull in the Beacons.

He said: "There is a general belief that a further 9,000 sheep will also have to be slaughtered if further blood tests are positive."

Tests on about 6,000 other animals in the area were being "fast-tracked" and should be known early next week.

If positive, new culls could be under way be the middle of next week.

More than three million animals have already been culled in Britain after the highly virulent disease was discovered at an English abattoir in February.

Foot-and-mouth, which is harmless to humans but destroys the economic value of livestock, is highly-contagious. It can be carried on the soles of shoes, the tyres of vehicles or even in the air.

The disease devastated Britain's livestock industry and seriously affected tourism and the wider rural community as much of the countryside became a "no-go" area.

There have been 1,891 confirmed cases of the disease in Britain since February. Of those cases, 108 have been in Wales, according to Reuters.

While the initial pace of the outbreak has tailed off, there was still an average of four new cases each day last week, the agency reported.