British authorities have begun the precautionary slaughter of a new group of about 50 cattle suspected of being infected with foot-and-mouth disease.
The animals were discovered Monday within a three-kilometre radius of the farm where foot and mouth cases were confirmed on Friday.
"We have been able to rapidly identify this suspect case and take appropriate action swiftly," the country's chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, Britain's chief veterinary officer, said in a statement.
Test results on the animals would be available Tuesday.
The cattle discovered Friday in Surrey, southwest of London, have already been destroyed.
The European Union moved Monday to ban the import of all fresh meat, live animals and fresh milk from Britain in response to the foot-and-mouth outbreak. The EU is about a billion-dollar per year market for British farmers.
Britain has already imposed a voluntary ban on such exports, the day after the highly infectious disease was found Friday amongst cattle on a farm in Surrey, which is located in the country's southwest.
Farmers are grimly preparing to take an economic hit in response.
"We know from long and bitter experience that a ban on exports leads to very low prices," said National Farmers' Union director of communications Anthony Gibson. "Further price cuts could be the last straw for an awful lot of people."
Canada, the U.S., Japan, Russia and South Korea have banned the importing of British pig and pork products. The U.S. and Japan had already banned British beef imports, a holdover from the bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, crisis of the mid-1990s.
The U.K. last experienced a foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001. Some say the agricultural industry is only now emerging from that crisis, which was estimated to cost the economy $18 billion.
In that crisis, the EU was accused of maintaining a ban longer than necessary, hurting British farmers in the process. This time, the EU has tried to lessen the impact of its ban.
No countryside ban
During the 2001 outbreak, the British government of then-prime minister Tony Blair shut down access to large areas of the countryside.
Foot-and-mouth is highly infectious. Although the disease doesn't affect humans, it can be carried by them. However, the virus can also be carried by the wind.
This time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government has tightly restricted the movements of farm animals while allowing tourists access to the English countryside.
Brown visited an emergency response centre on Monday and thanked farmers for what he called their "forbearance.
"No resources will be spared to get to the bottom of this because we know the future of farming depends on it," he said.
The strain of foot and mouth virus involved in the current outbreak is an unusual one.
Some speculate two labs involved in foot and mouth research and making a vaccine may have been the source. The labs are close to the outbreak site.
Both Merial Animal Health Ltd., a U.S.-French company, and the government-operated Institute for Animal Health say they have discovered no breach of their biosecurity procedures.
Government inspectors have checked the facilities and are to report on Tuesday.
With files from The Associated Press
