LONDON (AFP) — England on Sunday eased transport restrictions imposed after the latest outbreaks of foot and mouth as the culling continued in an attempt to contain the disease.
Farmers across Britain were allowed to take livestock to slaughter Sunday for the first time since the new outbreak was confirmed Wednesday on farm holdings west of London.
It is a relaxation of the strict rules imposed following this week's outbreaks of foot and mouth disease near Egham, just outside the M25 London orbital motorway.
However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said Saturday pigs were to be culled on a farm close to the affected premises.
The decision to cull was taken as a precautionary measure after a veterinary inspection of the pigs for clinical signs of the disease proved inconclusive, Defra said.
It brings to three the total number of premises subjected to culling following the latest outbreak.
Tests were ongoing to establish whether the disease had spread through animals, environment contamination or vehicle movement.
"Movement of animals to slaughter will be allowed in England under strict biosecurity rules and general licence," Britain's chief vet Debby Reynolds said in a statement.
She said the relaxation -- which only applies to livestock outside the 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) surveillance zone round the affected farms -- followed evaluation of the risk of movement of animals.
Cattle, sheep and pigs can be moved directly from farms to listed abattoirs, or from farms to abattoirs by an approved collection centre or slaughter market.
"We continue to take a risk-based, staged approach to movement controls," Reynolds said.
"It is essential that all animal keepers, hauliers, abattoirs and those responsible for collection centres follow stringent biosecurity measures and all licence conditions."
Similar rules in Scotland and Wales have already been eased, while they were never imposed across the North Channel in Northern Ireland.
Kevin Pearce, the National Farmers' Union (NFU)'s head of food and farming, said: "This is an encouraging signal which demonstrates that a risk-based, pragmatic approach is being taken by Defra."
Defra said Friday cattle culled on a farm in Egham, next to the site confirmed as infected Wednesday, had also tested positive for the potentially devastating disease.
It is only a week ago that the government declared Britain free of foot and mouth following last month's outbreaks, which were blamed on leaks from a nearby research laboratory.
But following the new outbreaks, the European Union has re-imposed a ban on British meat exports to the bloc's 26 other member states.
The 2007 outbreaks have raised the spectre of a repeat of a 2001 crisis, in which up to 10 million animals were culled and which cost the national economy about eight billion pounds (11.7 billion euros, 16.0 billion dollars).
The NFU said the restrictions imposed due to the foot and mouth crisis were costing the industry 10 million pounds (20 million dollars, 14.5 million euros) a day.
Farmers are particularly anxious for the ban to be eased because September is a key time for the livestock industry when most animals go to market.
Foot and mouth is a highly contagious viral disease that affects all cloven-footed animals.
Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and deer are among the animals which can contract the virus. Foot and mouth disease owes its name to the fact that the lesions it causes are found on the inside of the mouth and on the hooves of animals.
It is rarely passed to humans. The last reported human case of foot and mouth disease in Britain was in 1966.
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