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Animals at second Egham FMD farm may have had infection for three weeks
UK - Animals at the second Surrey farm to be diagnosed with foot-and-mouth last week may have been infected for about three weeks before disease was discovered, vets believe.Cattle at Stroude Farm, near Egham, owned by Ernie Ward, were found to have lesions that were 10 days old. This means they may have been carrying the virus for three weeks before disease was discovered on Wednesday. It also means they probably infected cattle on neighbouring Milton Park Farm, in animals owned by Rob Lawrence, of Hardwick Park farm. The revelation is likely to raise questions about whether there was sufficient testing done in Surrey before restrictions were lifted after the August outbreaks, and how disease was allowed to go undetected for so longIt also raises concerns that vehicles leaving the farm, which also had 900 pigs, may have spread the disease further. Defra investigators are in the process of tracing movements from the farm to establish where there might be risk of further infection.
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