World Cup organisers are keeping an anxious eye on the growing foot-and-mouth crisis in Britain with fears that it could disrupt rugby's glamour event in the same way a similar problem hit the 2001 Six Nations championship.
Government officials believe human error at the private pharmaceutical firm Merial Animal Health is the most likely source for the return of foot and mouth disease. Senior officials believe the virus may have been transported by an individual or by a car
British animal health officials said on Wednesday they were lifting a ban on the movement of livestock to slaughter outside a foot and mouth protection zone from midnight. The decision has been taken today to permit the movement of live animals direct to
For the second time in a month Thiruvanathapuram Zoo in Kerala is battling the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease. After one wild boar died of foot and mouth the zoo authorities decided to cull 19 others on Sunday but still don't know how many of th
Defra confirms a second case of foot and mouth on a farm within the 3km protection zone. Between 50 and 100 cows on the affected farm have been culled.
The EU export ban on British meat which has cost farmers £1m a week since it was imposed after the foot and mouth outbreak is to be lifted this weekend.
DEFRA has confirmed that foot and mouth disease movement restrictions will be lifted outside the Risk Area on Wednesday 15 October in parallel with the lifting of the foot and mouth protection zone in Surrey.
In the report into last months FMD outbreak in Surrey, Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial College London, noted that foot and mouth virus could survive in slurry for six months, on hay or straw for 20 weeks, and in water up to 50 days.