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More FMD, bluetongue found in UK livestockLONDON (AP)--Britain's livestock owners received more bad news on two fronts Sept. 24: a herd of cattle tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease, and a second cow was found to have bluetongue disease. Since the new outbreak of FMD last month, hundreds of animals have been slaughtered and movement of animals has been restricted at one of the busiest times of the year for livestock sales. In 2001, during a larger outbreak of FMD, thousands of cattle, sheep and pig carcasses were burned on large pyres across the country. The farming industry lost millions in revenue. A herd of cattle slaughtered Sept. 24 had tested positive for FMD, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or Defra, said. The cattle were found in an existing FMD control zone of Surrey, southeast of London, and the site became the seventh one where livestock have tested positive for the disease in England since last month. Earlier Sept. 24, livestock at a farm in Hampshire, which borders Surrey, tested negative for FMD, but animals at a new site in that province were being tested for the disease. Initial tests indicated animals that were slaughtered on a farm near Petersfield, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) southwest of London, did not have the highly infectious disease, Defra said. However, new tests for FMD were taking place at another site in the same county, Hampshire. A control zone was established there, the department said. Before Sept. 24, four cases of FMD had been confirmed in Surrey this month, following two in August. An inquiry said the August outbreak spread from a nearby veterinary laboratory site. Government veterinarians have confirmed that the strain of the disease in this month's cases was the same, and said all the animals appeared to have been infected at the same time. FMD affects cloven-hoofed animals, including cows, sheep, pigs and goats. It does not infect humans. Earlier Sept. 24, Defra announced that a second cow has tested positive for bluetongue disease at a farm in eastern England. Both animals were located at a farm near Ipswich, in Suffolk, it said. The initial case of bluetongue, discovered over the weekend, was the first ever found in Britain. "I can confirm a second cow has tested positive for bluetongue and was slaughtered this afternoon on the same farm. The evidence remained insufficient to confirm an outbreak," Defra said in a statement. The cow at the Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm near Ipswich was slaughtered after veterinarians made the discovery, Defra said. A bluetongue temporary area for surveillance was being established in a large area north and northeast of London, including Suffolk, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Bluetongue--an insect-borne, viral disease once common only in Mediterranean climes--affects cows, sheep and other ruminant animals, and can be fatal. Bluetongue does not affect humans. 10/8/07 Date: 10/4/07 Advertisement
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