Foot-and-mouth export ban lifted

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A European export ban on British livestock, meat and dairy products, imposed after the Surrey foot-and-mouth outbreak, has been lifted.

Exports will resume after European Union veterinary officers gave the go-ahead for controls to be eased.

The ban will continue within the 10km (six mile) surveillance zone around two farms where the disease was found.

An exclusion zone remains at two animal health laboratories which are the focus of the investigation into the outbreak.

Farmers 'delighted'

Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union, told BBC Radio Five Live the lifting of the ban was a huge relief to the farming community.

"It is fantastic news. If you had asked anyone in the farming industry three weeks ago...that we could have the confidence of our European partners and we could be back exporting live animals and products to the European Union so quickly they would have been amazed," he said.

"So they are delighted with this news and resumption."

The relaxation of restrictions follows the government's decision to remove a UK-wide ban on livestock movement and lift the 3km (two-mile) protection zones around the two Surrey farms.

However, as a precaution, animals being moved from farms outside the surveillance area will have to remain on the destination premises for 20 days, unless livestock is moved no more than 8km (five miles) away.

A ban on animal markets and shows also remains in place.

Vigilance urged

Meanwhile, the government's Chief Vet, Debby Reynolds, has imposed a 5km (three-mile) temporary bio-security area around the two animal health research laboratories at Pirbright, Surrey - three miles from where the first outbreak was discovered.

She said it was a precautionary measure to ensure extra vigilance among vets and animal keepers.

The labs are being investigated by officials trying to establish the cause of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Foot-and-mouth was confirmed in a herd of cattle at Woolford Farm in Surrey on 3 August.

A second case, at a farm nearby, was confirmed on 7 August.

Tests on two other farms, one in Surrey and one Kent, and on animals at Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey, all proved negative.