Shambo dies - more facing slaughter

Despite a long-running legal challenge by monks, he was seized by animal health officials on Thursday after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis.

Shambo was put down by lethal injection on Thursday night and a post-mortem examination found further signs of infection.

A spokesman for the Skanda Vale community in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, said another bullock and a water buffalo could now fall into the same category as Shambo. He said: "We were hoping it was over now but it is obviously not."

The monks' attempt to spare Shambo from the Welsh Assembly Government's slaughter policy ended at the Court of Appeal this week.

On Thursday, three months after Shambo failed a routine TB test, dozens of worshippers barred access to his pen by spending the day chanting prayers in front of him. In extraordinary scenes, police had to carry some people away after they refused to move.

Officials were denied access to Skanda Vale at the beginning of a day-long stand-off and were forced to obtain a warrant.

Returning in the afternoon with police back-up, they had to break a chain to unlock the gates so a cattle trailer could be towed on to the site.

The Welsh Assembly Government would not elaborate on what could happen to other animals. It said lesions typical of TB had been found during Shambo's post-mortem. "This means that a positive TB breakdown is now confirmed in the herd," a statement said.

Samples have been taken for laboratory tests but the results will not be available for "several weeks". It added: "The Welsh Assembly Government is continuing to consider what other action is now necessary to protect human and animal health in relation to the test results from other animals in the herd."