LONDON, 5 August 2007 — The specter of another catastrophic outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease like the one in 2001 yesterday prompted the UK government to act “urgently and decisively,” and in the words of Prime Minister Gordon Brown to do “everything in our power” to eradicate the latest episode of foot-and-mouth disease, which was found at a farm near Guildford in Surrey on Friday.

An accidental leak from a scientific research laboratory was being investigated last night as the possible source of the outbreak, and the hunt is on to establish the source of the current outbreak, which has affected a herd of about 80 cattle. Defra, the ministry responsible for agriculture and rural affairs, acted immediately in putting a 3km exclusion zone around the affected farm, close to the village of Wanborough, to try to halt the spread of the disease which wreaked havoc in 2001. Defra has also ordered a 10km surveillance zone to monitor other farms in the area. A UK-wide ban on the movement of all livestock is in place.

The UK also imposed a voluntary export ban on all animals and animal products. The culling of the infected herd began yesterday.

Defra is also investigating other possible outbreaks of the disease, and farmers have been asked to go the extra mile with biosecurity and vigilance. Tests at two other farms have thus far proven negative, which gives extra hope that this may be an isolated outbreak of the virulent disease. The ministry has already set up an emergency national disease center in Reigate in London and a local one in Surrey as part of a emergency contingency plan.

The prime minister yesterday chaired two meetings of Cobra, the government’s top emergency committee, to oversee everything that can possibly be done to pre-empt the current outbreak from spreading.

The prime minister yesterday canceled his holiday in Dorset to return to London for the Cobra meeting, and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn also returned from a holiday in Italy to oversee his department, Defra.

Brown reassured the British nation: “I want to do everything in our power immediately to get to the scientific evidence, to look at the source of what has happened, to set up a number of inquiries so that we can actually move very quickly, I mean within hours and days, what has actually happened, and then to eradicate this disease in Britain. We will be doing night and day everything in our power to make sure that what happens quickly and happens decisively in a way that can reassure people that everything is being done.”

Debby Reynolds, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, said there was a “strong commitment to work with everybody in the countryside concerned. It is a big blow for it to be back in UK territory, but our objective is to eradicate it.”

“We will try to use the lessons learned after 2001 for a speedy, systematic and scientific response,” she told a press conference.

British livestock farmers are anxious that the outbreak must be contained. They have not forgotten the devastating foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 which saw the slaughter of between 6.5 and 10 million animals, and which ruined many farmers and rural businesses and is estimated to have cost the country up to 8.5 billion pounds.

The outbreak brought chaos to Britain and left the farming and tourist industries and the rural economy devastated.

British farmers also fear a ban on British livestock exports. Japan yesterday banned UK pork imports and the European Union announced it was stopping British livestock exports.

Richard MacDonald, Director General of the National Farmers’ Union, warned that it has been a “devastating 24 hours for the livestock industry. We are where we are now and we take that obviously hugely seriously and, given all of that, our priority is to ensure that we get out of this situation as quickly as possible and as effectively as possible.”

Defra scientists are working flat out to establish which one of the seven foot and mouth virus strains is responsible for the outbreak. This process may take the whole weekend. Foot-and-mouth is a highly contagious viral disease which affects cattle. Symptoms include fever, blisyers in the mouth and hoofs (hence the foot and mouth description) and lameness. The disease only crosses the species barrier from cattle to human with very great difficulty, and in humans presents itself as a mild and short-lived condition which requires no medical treatment.

Speculation about the source of the current outbreak is rife. Some have blamed illegal food imports which have got into the feedstock chain somehow.