LONDON, 8 August 2007 — Government scientists yesterday started urgent tests on several farms across Surrey as the UK Environment Secretary Hilary Benn confirmed a second case of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) at a farm in Elstead near Goldaming, which is in the 3 km “Protection Zone.”

The fear among officials and farmers alike is that the disease has spread again, after the initial outbreak last Friday at the Woolford’s farm, which is near the Pirbright animal health research complex, believed to be the likely source of the outbreak.

UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) officials yesterday culled a further 102 cattle at the Elstead site, and the department extended the protection and surveillance zones as a further precaution.

A preliminary report by government inspectors said yesterday there was a “strong probability” that the strain of virus originated from two nearby research laboratories. The report, by the government’s Health and Safety Executive, did not point the finger at either of the animal health labs at the site but said they were probably the source.

Roger Pride, the farmer at the center of the FMD outbreak at Woolford’s farm, which saw the culling of over 60 cattle, yesterday spoke for the first time about the ordeal when inspectors confirmed that his herd had contracted the deadly FMD.

“For a moment we couldn’t believe it. We were completely shocked and devastated. It felt as if our whole world was turned upside down, and I had to wait 10 minutes before I could even phone my father to tell him. Now we just hope this nightmare can be avoided for other farmers.

“Whatever the cause of the outbreak, it is obvious that we’ve been the victims of circumstances far beyond our control. The theory that the sewer which overflows into part of the field where the 38 cattle were grazing could be the cause, is an obvious possibility,” he added.

There is also a theory that floodwaters may have carried the disease to his farm, because water from an overflowing sewer had spread across his fields. Pride, in a statement released through the National Union of Farmers, reiterated that Woolford Farm had “the highest standards of biosecurity” and no animals had been moved on or off the farm since early June. In a typical example of British stoicism, he vowed to fight on and rebuild his livestock business, which took him and his family 20 years to build up.

The strain of the virus found at his farm was the same one that was being used in tests and in the production of vaccines at both the private pharmaceutical company, Merial Health, and the Defra-funded Institute for Animal Health, who have adjacent facilities at the Pirbright complex, four miles away. Farmer Laurence Matthews, who owns the land where the second outbreak struck, told the BBC yesterday: “We were starting to think that maybe this virus had been contained...now with this second outbreak this has set us back again. Most farmers...are very, very scared and all activity on farms has almost come to a standstill.”

However, Environment Secretary Benn insisted that the discovery of the second outbreak showed that the restrictions were working. “It was the surveillance team that noticed what could be the first clinical signs of foot and mouth. It shows the benefits of the firm measures we have taken to deal with this outbreak and stop its spread,” he explained.

Benn defended the government’s decision to ask Merial to supply stocks of the foot and mouth vaccine, amid growing calls from farmers for Defra to vaccinate herds in the 10km surveillance zone. Defra has ordered 300,000 doses of the vaccine from Merial, but could not confirm whether or when the vaccines would actually be used.

The National Union of Farmers (NFU), which has opposed the use of vaccination in the past, said the government should have the capability to use it “as an option,” depending on the circumstances. The NFU gave a thumbs up to the government’s handling of this current outbreak. “I think that everything that could have been done, has been done. I think the lessons, so far, have been learned from what went wrong in the 2001 outbreak,” said a spokesperson.

The NFU estimates that the current FMD outbreak could cost “tens of millions of pounds,” affecting not just farmers but related industries, such as abattoirs and meat packaging plants.

Defra acted immediately to impose a ban on the movement of all livestock across Britain, while the European Commission formalized a ban on British exports of meat, milk products and live animals.

The department is also in talks with the NFU about shutting all footpaths and rights of way in the area to prevent further contamination. Some farmers have expressed anger that public footpaths crossing their land are still open despite the foot-and-mouth outbreak. They say the paths leave them exposed to infection spread by walkers. Benn, however, warned that the closure of footpaths was a decision for the chief veterinary officer but added that “it is vital to the rural economy that people do not think the countryside is closed.”