'Crucial week' in disease fight

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The UK's chief veterinary officer has said this is a "crucial week" in the fight against foot-and-mouth disease.

Debby Reynolds told the BBC vigilance was still needed and plans must be made "with a real sense of urgency" to return the farming industry to normal.

Farmers' leaders in England say the ongoing restrictions on animal movement are damaging their livelihoods.

Meanwhile, the government is awaiting the results of independent tests on soil from the outbreak site in Surrey.

The Health and Safety Executive said on Friday it had received the results of the tests from the Pirbright laboratory site and would report back to ministers once the data had been analysed.

Dr Reynolds told BBC News 24: "It is a crucial week for a combination of vigilance and planning ahead.

"Vigilance for those people who keep animals looking for early signs of infection just in case there is some foot-and-mouth disease virus still there, but also planning ahead with a real sense of urgency."

She said she wanted to see "a staged, risk-based, step-wise way forward for all concerned".

Negative tests

On Sunday, leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said the foot-and-mouth outbreak could effectively be over by the end of this week if no new cases emerged.

Earlier, a 3km (1.8 mile) temporary control zone around a farm at Wotton near Dorking was lifted after test results came back negative.

<a class="bodl" href="#farm">See map of remaining protection zone</a>

Animals at two farms near Guildford have tested positive for the disease, while animals culled at a third farm inside the surveillance zone set up a week ago were shown not to have foot-and-mouth.

A 10km (6.2 mile) surveillance zone is still in place around the affected farms.

HOW FOOT-AND-MOUTH SPREADS Direct contact, from animal to animalFluid from an infected animal's blister; saliva, milk or dung also pass on the diseaseAnimals eating infected feedVirus can be spread by people or vehicles, if not disinfected Airborne spread of disease also possibleAnimals can begin spreading virus before visible signs of disease emerge <i>Source: Defra</i> <a class="" href="/1/hi/uk/6930959.stm">Q&A: Foot-and-mouth experts</a>

Restrictions on taking animals to abattoirs have been lifted, but many movements of livestock - such as sending animals to market - are still banned in England.

The BBC's environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said farmers in England were angry that what they called "crippling" restrictions did not apply in Scotland and Wales.

She said farmers in the South West or North East of England were frustrated that while they may be no nearer geographically to the outbreak than those in Scotland or Wales, they were subject to far stricter rules.

In Wales farmers are allowed to move animals on welfare grounds, and in Scotland they have been able to send animals to abattoirs since Wednesday and across the border to England since Friday.

An interim report into the disease concluded the most likely source of the outbreak was the Pirbright lab site, used by vaccine manufacturer Merial and the state-run Institute for Animal Health.

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