The fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease reported in cattle near Egham, Surrey, is the worst possible news for UK farming.

Farmers' leaders privately conceded this morning they believed the disease was indeed present at a Surrey farm, citing obvious symptoms in cattle. Insiders at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the reports.

The European Union has also moved quickly to impose a new ban on trade with Britain while the earlier ban on exports to third countries, expected to be lifted in early November, will now be further delayed.

A national ban on all animal movements has been put in place - though why this was not implemented at 9.35 am today - when the restrictions around the farm were first imposed - is baffling.

Scant details are in the public domain at present but I understand the farmer involved keeps pigs as well as cattle. Though the suspect cattle were kept on a separate site to the pigs, the latter are virulent transmitters of the disease. If they were infected the foot and mouth virus would be excreted and blown on the wind to any neighbouring farms. That could be a catalyst which would trigger the use of vaccination in Britain for the first time to halt spread of the disease.

The emergency plan is to vaccinate animals around the infected premises to act as a firebreak for the further spread of the disease.

If the outbreak spreads, it will be one of the worst times in the farming year for animals to be locked down and kept at a standstill.

This month there is considerable movement of sheep and cattle from the hills to the lowlands for fattening over the winter. The period also coincides with the main sales of ewes and rams for sheep breeding.

Animals will have been travelling throughout the UK today and gathering at auction markets. With news of a suspect foot and mouth case however, some farmers may have collected their animals and returned them home. It was this mingling of animals at markets which led to the 2001 outbreak spreading the length of Britain to become the world’s worst epidemic of the disease.

The main question however - just four days after Dr Debby Reynolds, the Government chief vet, declared Britain free of the disease - is how did this new outbreak occur and is foot and mouth gaining a foothold in Surrey?

State vets will be tracking movements of people, vehicles and animals to and from the farm. They will also check whether this farm has any link with Pirbright or Weybridge, home of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the world reference laboratory for foot and mouth disease which carries out testing. It is also possible animals were infected by grass, soil or water for the virus can survive for up to 50 days in the rural environment. Incubation of animals though is about a week to ten days.

There was widespread disbelief in farming circles today that the disease had returned so rapidly. Questions are now being asked as to whether there was too much haste to restore the UK’s export trade in meat, meat products and ready meals.

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