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Welsh sheep cull extended

Foot and mouth
Tests are continuing on sheep in the area  


CARDIFF, Wales -- Wales is to cull another 1,700 sheep grazing on the Brecon Beacons as more animals tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease.

The move has been described by Welsh Assembly officials as the worst case scenario and is in addition to the 4,000 sheep slaughtered a few days' ago.

More sheep are to be tested later in the week, and Leigh Roberts, spokeswoman for the National Farmers' Union in Wales, warned up to a quarter of all sheep in the area could be culled eventually.

Roberts told Reuters: "We are absolutely terrified really because the blood tests that have come back so far show that the disease is there, and these sheep roam over a wide area.

"We are concerned that the disease might have got farther than we originally thought and that we could see up to a quarter of all sheep in the area being culled."

A vaccination programme continues to be rejected by farmers on the grounds that it would be "inappropriate."

The announcement comes as officials in North Yorkshire, northern England, said between 30,000 and 50,000 sheep were being tested for the disease and tougher preventive measures had been deployed to protect large pig herds.

Rob Simpson, a spokesman for the NFU in the region, said about 350,000 sheep, 500,000 pigs, and 113,000 cattle were locked in a so-called bio-security area.

Simpson told Reuters: "The reason why they have introduced these new measures is...to protect about a third of the nation's pig herds (near to the area). These measures are a necessary evil.

"It's out of control in the sense that we don't know when the next outbreak is going to be confirmed, but there are two or three cases a day opposed to 60 cases a day in March and April."

The UK government and farmers are hoping the disease, which affects cloven-hoofed animals such as sheep, cattle, pigs and goats but not humans, can be eradicated before the onset of the cold, damp winter which the virus thrives on.

More than 3.6 million animals have been slaughtered with more than 910 farms affected since the outbreak in late February. The number of Welsh farms hit how stands at 114.

The cost to the government has already reached £1.2 billion, with the total cost likely to top £2.3 billion.

But farmers are angry at ministers' decision on Monday to scrap "generous" payments to farmers hit by the foot-and-mouth epidemic. From now on, cash for slaughtered animals will only be decided by an independent valuer.

During the crisis, farmers have been able to speed up the process by opting for a standard rate for their animals -- but this was often far higher than they would have received at market.






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