Financial Times

The discovery of the first case of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK for 20 years could result in a ban on the export of live animals from the country.

The highly infectious viral disease was diagnosed in 27 pigs at the Cheale Meats abattoir in Essex during a routine inspection, and Jim Scudamore, the chief veterinary officer, said a complete ban on exports may now be required.

All 300 animals at the Cheale abattoir will now be destroyed and management said they were "co-operating fully" with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to determine the source of the outbreak.

Nonetheless, farmers could face the first foot-and-mouth epidemic since 1967. Another case has already been identified at a farm close to the Cheale abattoir in Little Warley, near Brentwood, according to reports.

The National Farmers' Union said the outbreak could prove disastrous for the country's livestock farmers. The pig sector is still recovering from an epidemic of swine fever last year, when 12,000 pigs were slaughtered and a temporary ban on the export of live pigs and pig semen was introduced. Beef producers continue to suffer the repercussions of BSE, or mad cow disease.

"The priority now is to contain [the outbreak] and we fully support all the measures which have been speedily put in place by MAFF," Ben Gill, NFU president, said. "While these measures will be devastating to the farms involved, it is in the interests of the whole UK livestock industry that this disease is stopped dead in its tracks."

MAFF called on farmers to check their stocks and report any potential symptoms.

A five-mile exclusion zone has been established around the Cheale Meats abattoir, preventing the movement of animals, with further exclusion zones imposed around farms in Horwood, Buckinghamshire and Freshwater Bay in the Isle of Wight.

The Food Standards Agency said the cases did not have any implications for the human food chain.