Movement to market in foot and mouth ‘low risk areas’
Defra is to amend the current foot and mouth disease (FMD) restrictions so that, subject to no further changes to the disease situation, movements to livestock markets in the low risk Area will be permitted from Thursday 4 October.
The low risk area covers all England, Wales and Scotland excepting Essex, Kent, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Greater London.
The allowed movement will be subject to stringent biosecurity measures, and the current control measures in the FMD risk area remain in place.
In addition, following negative laboratory results the Foot and Mouth disease temporary control zone in the Maidenhead area has now lifted. Laboratory tests also show that the strain of FMD found on the seventh infected premises is the same strain as that found on the other premises in Surrey.
Defra has also today received positive test results for bluetongue for a fifth animal on a fourth premises near Burstall, Suffolk. This animal will be culled.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.