Livestock movement ban eased

Britain said yesterday it was easing a nationwide ban on moving livestock that was imposed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in southern England, adding there was a low risk of the disease spreading outside the immediate area.

Chief veterinarian Debby Reynolds said farmers outside the six-mile surveillance zone set up around the farms where the outbreaks occurred would be able to send their animals to slaughterhouses as of midnight yesterday.

Health and safety experts were working to determine whether the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak came from a high-security government laboratory or from a private pharmaceutical company on the same site - and whether its spread was accidental or deliberate.