No vaccination despite another possible foot and mouth outbreak

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Pressure was growing on the Government to vaccinate thousands of cattle against food and mouth disease as vets investigated a third outbreak.

If confirmed, the new case, at a farm in Wotton, near Dorking, will be the first outside the initial "surveillance zone".

However, Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds today said the Government had decided not to vaccinate cattle in the area, despite having team of vets ready to administer injections standing by.

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Map of foot and mouth spread from the original protection zone

"This is the seventh day of foot and mouth, and it is a critical one.

"From 6 August we have had vaccination centres up and running just outside the surveillance zone," she said.

"However, we have decided not to vaccinate at this time. It is a decision that is under constant review, and the vaccination centres will remain in place."

If cattle are vaccinated, under EU rules they could not be exported for six months. However, experts today warned the Government was running out of time.

The Soil Association wants Defra to use vaccination create a "firebreak" around a wider area of Surrey if a third case of the virus is confirmed.

Spokesman Patrick Holden said that in Holland in 2001, 100,000 animals were vaccinated against foot and mouth within three days, and after eight days it had been contained.

Mr Holden said: "In contrast, the UK which did not use vaccination (in 2001), took months to bring the disease under control, slaughtering and burning millions of animals with a cost to the taxpayer of over £8billion."

The Lib Dems' shadow Defra secretary Chris Huhne said vaccination "must be an option" if the third case is confirmed.

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Crisis: Pirbright is now the centre of the Legionnaires' investigation

Ms Reynolds today said further tests confirmed it was "very likely" the outbreak started at the Pirbright facility where the Institute of Animal Health and the private Merial lab are based.

Today a 3km temporary control area has been set up around undisclosed premises west of Dorking after an "inconclusive assessment" of foot and mouth symptoms in cattle, Defra said.

The farmer at the centre of the suspected third outbreak also owns the land in Normandy where the second outbreak occurred.

However, Lawrence Matthews said there had been no movement between the sites.

"Neither I or any of my staff have visited the Normandy land since the spring," he said.

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Hundreds of cattle have been culled as a result of the outbreak

The land in Normandy is rented out to John Gunner, the farmer who saw his entire herd culled earlier this week, Mr Matthews said.

A scientist investigating the outbreak today said police should be called in as biosecurity at Pirbright was so tight the disease had to have been spread deliberately.

Andrew King, a former department head of the Institute of Animal Health, said: "It has to be regarded as a bit fishy."

Meanwhile, the Great British Circus is being investigated after claims it moved reindeer and camels 60miles from Clacton- on-Sea to Rochford on Sunday, while animal movement restrictions were in place.

Circus owner John Bird said: "We didn't know about the ban."

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