Vaccination teams are to be stood down from their current level of alert after it was confirmed last night that two temporary control zones in Kent and Surrey, set up to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, have been lifted.
The decision by Defra, as revealed in the Evening Times yesterday, is based on further negative laboratory results for the disease and supporting veterinary advice. But teams could be stood up again in five days if needed, Defra added.
Earlier yesterday, preliminary tests on a farm in the Romney Marsh area of Kent and at Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo in Surrey proved negative.
A 3km temporary control zone had been set up around the Kent farm - the first established outside Surrey.
Vets were also called to Chessington World of Adventures following a routine check on the park's animals. A similar restriction was placed outside the original surveillance zone.
Dr Debby Reynolds said yesterday that the risk of the disease spreading outside the original protection and surveillance zones around the infected farms and Pirbright laboratory in Surrey was now very low.
As a result, restrictions on the movement of animals were being eased from midnight to allow livestock to be moved around a farm, within a 3km radius, for welfare reasons.
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