A third case of foot-and-mouth disease was identified by government vets yesterday.

News of the case, which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has not yet confirmed, coincides with today’s official EU inspection of the Government’s handling of the outbreak.

The Times has learnt that the results of tests on cattle culled last Friday showed that they were infected. They were owned by Robert Lawrence on a plot of land near Chertsey. It was cattle kept by him at Milton Park Farm, near Egham, Surrey, that triggered the resurgence of the disease last week. Results are awaited on 24 pigs kept at a smallholding next to Stroude Farm, Virginia Water, where the disease was confirmed in cattle on Friday. The pigs were slaughtered amid fears that they could be infected.

Vaccination teams are on standby at an aerodrome near Guildford, but are unlikely to be called on today. The government contingency plan makes clear that vaccination must be considered on day five of an outbreak, which falls today. But without a dramatic rise in cases and no evidence of any leap in the virus from outside the surveillance zone, Debby Reynolds, the chief vet, is unlikely to recommend vaccination, although the possibility will remain under review.

The European delegation, from the Food and Veterinary Office, is due to arrive in London today to monitor the Government’s efforts to control the disease. It is also to inspect bio-security at the Pirbright Scientific Research Centre, where the virus escaped from a broken drainpipe.

State vets and animal health officials have stepped up inspections at the other holdings in the Surrey surveillance zone. There is concern that some farmers, especially those who keep small numbers of animals, may have failed to spot signs of disease.

Attempts to contain the outbreak attracted criticism after four cattle escaped from a field at Ripley on Saturday as vets and slaughtermen arrived to carry out a cull.

The cattle were apparently “spooked” shortly after 7am and fled across fields, went through a canal and ended up at the 16th hole of Pyrford Golf Club.

Police and Defra officials ordered the greens to be cleared and kept 60 golfers in the clubhouse for five hours. Nigel Embry, 62 of Byfleet, one of the golfers, said: “I was horrified by the poor bio-security. They made us all disinfect our shoes but they were not at all interested in our golf trolleys, clubs or bags that were also in contact with the grass where the cattle had been . . . There should have been a disinfectant mat at the clubhouse.”

Government vets are finalising an epidemiology report into the latest spread of foot-and-mouth, four days after Britain was declared disease-free. Hundreds of movements are being traced in a 50km (31-mile) radius from Pirbright, where the Institute of Animal Health and Merial, the pharmaceutical company, handle the virus.

Traces are being made on all lorry movements from the site. It is thought that the leaked virus was picked up on tyres of contractors’ vehicles, which then shed the virus on a lane near the Surrey farm where cattle contracted the disease in August. The name of the haulage firm has not been released amid concerns that it could be the target of animal welfare activists.

Farmers’ leaders are attempting to defuse the anger in the wider livestock industry over their financial losses. Hauliers, exporters and livestock agents, who are not eligible for compensation, had planned to protest outside Pirbright but farming leaders persuaded them to drop such a demonstration as it would affect public sympathy for farmers.

£10m - The estimated daily cost of the latest outbreak
Source: Times database

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