UPDATE
An 18th case of foot-and-mouth disease has been confirmed at an abattoir in Okehampton, Devon.
This comes after the ban on movement of livestock in the UK was extended for two more weeks, starting from this Friday.
Agriculture Minister Nick Brown has announced the measure after the 17th case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed.
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Click the link at the bottom to see which fisheries have been closed.
Yesterday a sheep in North Wales was found with symptoms of the disease and tests are being carried out on the animal at an abattoir at Gaerwen, Anglesey. The area has been sealed off and police called in to enforce an exclusion zone.
Welsh Assembly spokeswoman Ruth Williams said: “The sheep is still alive but it has not yet been confirmed whether it has foot-and-mouth disease.”
The latest confirmed case, the seventh, is at Burdon Farm in Highampton, Devon. The owner of Burdon Farm also owns twelve other farms and concerns are growing that vehicles have travelled extensively between them, with the possibility that the disease has been exported abroad.
Meanwhile more than 800 slaughtered pigs were incinerated at Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, where the disease is thought to have started.
Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said: “This is a serious development, there’s no denying that. There could be other cases out there, we don’t know. It will be discovered over the next few days.”
