Not foot-and-mouth, insists farmer

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A 3km temporary control zone was set up around the farm near Dorking in Surrey, outside the existing surveillance area, after an "inconclusive assessment" of symptoms in cattle, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

But farmer Laurence Matthews said on Friday he was "absolutely sure" the disease was not on his farm.

He said animals showed signs of ulcers but there were no lesions.

Mr Matthews said swabs and blood tests on his calves were being carried out to confirm it was not foot-and-mouth.

Mr Matthews said he was confident that his cattle were not suffering from the disease, but had decided to contact Defra and have the animals tested.

"We are waiting for those results and hopefully it will show it was not foot and mouth," he said. He expected the results later on Friday.

He said that of his 200 acres of land, some was in the exclusion zone and was grazed by John Gunner, whose cattle were affected in the second outbreak. "I was so worried because of my links to Normandy."

But he insisted: "My cattle have never been inside any of those zones."

Mr Matthews said he had around 800 cattle on the farm and he was confident that the flu-like symptoms that had appeared in 65 of his calves, such as watery eyes, would be a routine virus.