UK to relax foot-and-mouth cull

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The UK government is to announce a relaxation of the mass livestock slaughter policy used to fight foot-and-mouth disease.

It is expected to reverse what is called the firebreak policy -- whereby healthy animals on farms bordering infected sites are culled as a preventative measure.

The move emerged after Prime Minister Tony Blair reprieved a photogenic newborn white calf that survived for five days under a mound of carcasses.

The week-old white calf, named Phoenix by the farmers who rescued it, was due to be put down after surviving a cull on a farm in Devon in the southwest of England.

ALSO The Phoenix factor     AUDIO CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney: Outcry over Phoenix 368K/34 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     QUICKVOTE As the UK announces a reprieve for Phoenix the calf, is it right for government policy to be dictated by sentimentality? Yes No View Results

His fate triggered a flurry of appeals from the public after receiving front-page newspaper coverage.

A spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office said the calf had been allowed to live because the government was about to signal a major easing in policy in some areas.

The policy reversal follows a major a slowdown in the number of new outbreaks. Agriculture Minister Nick Brown is due to tell MPs in a statement that for the last seven-day period, the total number of new cases fell below 100 for the first time in 8 weeks.

The white calf was hailed by newspapers and farming leaders as a symbol of hope in the nine-week epidemic that has ravaged Britain's farming and rural tourism industries and led to the slaughter of 2.2 million animals.

Blair told parliament on Wednesday that some experts had expected up to 80 new infected sites a day at this stage of the epidemic, but new cases were now averaging 20 a day or less.

Eighteen new cases were found on Wednesday, taking the total to 1,479. The government's chief scientist, David King, has also said the worst is over and predicted the number of new cases would halve every two weeks.

The calf Phoenix -- born on April 13, a Friday -- had survived for five days next to its dead mother, among a herd of 15 cattle culled because of the disease, before she was discovered on Monday.

'A ray of light'

The cattle, and a flock of 30 sheep did not have foot and mouth but were slaughtered on the 35-acre farm last Thursday. Phoenix was discovered on Monday when officials came to disinfect the ground at Clarence Farm.

Farmer Philip Board resisted further attempts to have the animal put down, and then came the news of the intended rule change that saved Phoenix.

Board told the Press Association: "It is absolutely fantastic -- a ray of light for the farming industry.

"I think farmers deserve a bit of cheering up -- it has been so miserable and bad. It is about time we had something good."

Meanwhile, health officials are still awaiting the results of tests on three people suspected to have caught foot-and-mouth while handling the carcasses of infected animals.

One suspected victim, Paul Stamper, fears the stigma of the disease will prevent him working in farming again.

"This has been a terrible ordeal for me and my family," The Mirror newspaper quoted him as saying.

"Even though the experts say it can't be passed from people to animals, with this illness people will say there is no smoke without fire and the work will dry up."

Stamper, who is suffering from sores in his mouth, said he was carrying a bloated carcass when it exploded in his face.

"Before I could do anything, I had swallowed some of the fluids from its body. It was a moment I will never forget."

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