A new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle was confirmed in Britain today, prompting the European Union to reimpose a ban on British meat exports.
The new case was discovered close to a farm south of London where an outbreak was first reported last month.
Restrictions imposed then were lifted only four days ago and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) imposed a new England-wide ban on the movement of cattle, sheep, pigs and other ruminants.
Cattle were ordered slaughtered on the affected farm, near Egham, west of London. Egham is 21 km from the village of Normandy, where foot and mouth disease was confirmed on August 3.
A three kilometre protection zone was thrown around the farm with a wider 10 km surveillance zone imposed on the farm.
The European Union reimposed a total ban on meat and livestock exports from Britain to the other 26 member states, the European Commission said.
Britain's red meat export market is worth about STG500 million ($A1.2 billion) a year, mostly with the EU. Britain was the ninth largest beef exporter last year among the 27 European Union members.
After chairing a meeting of COBRA, Britain's top-level cell to cope with national crises, Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed that his government would do everything to stamp out the disease and find its "root cause".
But Brown said: "I don't think it's possible to say at this stage what finally caused this particular outbreak".
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said that the foot and mouth outbreak was "news that nobody wanted to hear".
An official investigation last week concluded that the earlier outbreak was probably caused by leaking drains, flooding and vehicles moving from nearby animal vaccine laboratories without pinpointing the exact source.
The laboratories are at Pirbright, 16 km from Egham.
A leading scientist, Professor Hugh Pennington, said the latest outbreak is highly likely to be a resurgence of the strain which hit farmers last month.
Pennington, an emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, northern Scotland, said the disease could survive for as long as two months in cool, damp conditions, which the area has been enjoying in recent weeks.
UK chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said the authorities were vigilant after she confirmed the new case of foot-and-mouth.
"There are other reported cases being investigated, including one in Norfolk in some pigs, where foot and mouth disease can't be ruled out," Reynolds told BBC television.
Pigs in eastern England and a sheep in Scotland were tested today for the disease, with vets ruling out foot and mouth as the cause for the sheep's sickness. Officials downplayed the possibility of foot and mouth in connection with the pig.
The Dutch agriculture ministry, meanwhile, declared a total ban on the movement of cattle, pigs, goats and sheep after the case was confirmed in Britain.
The wider restriction zone around the new case in England encircles London Heathrow Airport - Europe's busiest airport - stretches of the M25 London orbital motorway, the M4 motorway to Wales and the River Thames, rail routes to central London - including the main line to Wales and southwest England - and Windsor Castle, which Queen Elizabeth II considers as her home.
Anthony Gibson, a spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said: "We're going to be reliving the nightmare."
"The government has very serious questions to answer. If it's a fresh leak, they're going to have to pull out all the stops to limit the damage."
The outbreaks raised the spectre of a repeat of a 2001 crisis, in which up to 10 million animals were culled and which cost the national economy about STG8 billion ($A19.5 billion).
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