Authorities in Wales are investigating a suspected case of foot and mouth disease at an abattoir in Anglesey in the north of the country. Samples have been removed for analysis from the abattoir at Gaerwen, near Menai Bridge. The area has been sealed off and police are enforcing an exclusion zone. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and trading standards officers have visited the site. A spokesperson for the Welsh Assembly said that so far only one sheep is suspected of having the disease. Test results will not be known until tomorrow.
A further outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in a new area of Britain today, just hours before the mass incineration of animal carcasses was due to begin. The latest outbreak, near Okehampton in Devon, was the seventh to be confirmed and the first in the southwest of the country. Confirmed outbreaks of the disease were previously confined to two clusters in Northumberland and Essex. The disease was only confirmed among Burdon Farm's 600-strong cattle herd; vets are examining the 1,500 sheep for signs of infection. The owner of the farm in Devon has 13 farms – 11 in Devon and two in Cornwall. This farmer exports to the continent.
The British Minister for Agriculture, Nick Brown has said that "it is a serious development because it is a large enterprise covering a large area". British Agriculture ministry officials still do not know how the infection started in Devon. They say that the discovery is very worrying. Up until now all the confirmed cases had been located in eastern and south-eastern England
Livestock in the south west had already been slaughtered as a precautionary measure. There had earlier been hopes that the virus had been contained. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, speaking on a flight back from Washington, said his Government was doing everything it could to clear up the disease.
The mass slaughter of livestock at British farms is continuing today as part of the effort to halt the spread of the disease. The slaughtering has been taking place at eight farms and abattoirs that have been infected or that may have had contact with the disease. In northern England Ministry of Agriculture workers tonight lit the pyre of more than 800 slaughtered pigs at Burnside farm in Northumberland.
In Northern Ireland, Department of Agriculture vets are continuing to monitor a mid-Ulster farm where a cow died after showing symptoms similar to those of foot and mouth disease. It will not be known until tomorrow whether or not the cow had the disease.
