Foot and mouth outbreak confirmed

An emergency operation to halt a new epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease has swung into action as farmers reeled at the confirmation of a fresh outbreak.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown cancelled his holiday after being told the disease had been found on a farm near Guildford, Surrey, and will chair a second emergency Government meeting at the Cabinet Office later.

Meanwhile, a nationwide ban on the movement of all sheep, cattle and pigs was put in place.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that a three kilometre "protection zone" and a 10 kilometre "surveillance zone" had been imposed around the farm.

A spokesman refused to give its exact location, but a graphic on the Defra website showed the centre of the zones to be between Guildford and Aldershot.

The outbreak raised the spectre of the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001, which brought chaos to Britain and left farming and tourist industries devastated.

The farm at the centre of the outbreak has been under restrictions since late on Thursday evening when symptoms were reported to the local animal health office.

Peter Kendall, the president of the National Farmers Union, said he has "enormous concern" about the situation. He said that a particular worry is that the livestock industry is already depressed.

Tim Bonner, spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said: "Farmers around the country will be hoping and praying that this is an isolated incident and that the disease is not already widespread, because last time when we found out about it, it was already everywhere.

"We hope and pray that the lessons from last time have been learned. The handling of the crisis in 2001 was an unmitigated disaster."