Around 100 young pigs have been killed on a German farm in a precautionary cull. The cull follows the discovery of a suspected case of foot and mouth disease in Germany. A three-kilometre exclusion zone has been put in place around the small farm at Horstmar-Leer in the Muenster district, about 35 kilometres from the border with the Netherlands. The results of preliminary tests are due tomorrow. Germany has so far been free of the disease. Several suspected cases have proved to be negative.
Meanwhile, as the number of confirmed FMD cases in Britain now stands well above 900, a second mass burial site for tens of thousands of slaughtered animals will be opened today. The mass grave at Throckmorton airfield in Worcestershire, will be of a similar size to the one currently in use at Great Orton, in Cumbria. The opening comes as British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, visits Wales on his seventh trip to a foot and mouth hotspot in the last fortnight.
