Nervous wait
- 14 Aug 07, 06:23 PM
I come from spending much of the day with the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn. We had been granted special access to visit the new animal disease control centre in Guildford with him, to talk about the progress of efforts to combat the disease. Nearly 200 staff, vets, animal inspectors, trading standards officers, even police, from all over the country, have gathered there to do their utmost to stamp it out.
It's an impressive operation and clearly the minister enjoyed meeting and talking with the staff. So much so, that his team were having a hard time trying to keep him to his timetable for the day. Things at the centre seemed to be run with military precision. The staff are clearly all working very hard, but they seemed positive about their progress.
But later, once we'd arrived back in London the mood changed. News of a potential case of the disease, in Kent, more than 60 miles away from the original outbreak, broke. A meeting was scheduled for the minister with farmers, vets, and other groups affected. I understand they had been planning to talk about ways of moving towards easing the movement ban. But instead, top of the agenda , another potential case. An outbreak, if confirmed, in Kent would be serious indeed because it would show efforts to confine the disease had failed. Somehow it would have got through and if it had been able to travel that far, where else might it turn up?
And in the past 20 minutes another possible outbreak. This time in Surrey, but outside the original control area that was set up around the first case. Defra, and most of all, farmers around the country will hope fervently that neither case is proved to be foot and mouth. And it's important to remember that it's in a sense MORE likely that suspected cases will be found because farmers are on high alert. That said, it's a nervous wait for ministers and those whose livelihoods depend on this disease being stamped out.
In terms of identifying a source for the outbreak - still no news. Hilary Benn told me this afternoon he just didn't know when the results of the tests from the Pirbright labs would be complete. There may never be a conclusive outcome.
