LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday that bluetongue disease has been detected now in 11 animals, more than double the five cases confirmed three days earlier.
"There are now 11 cases of bluetongue," Brown said in a statement from his offices at 10 Downing Street, a day after veterinarians confirmed Friday that there was a full-blown bluetongue outbreak.
The first case of bluetongue ever recorded in Britain was confirmed in a cow on Saturday near Ipswich in southeastern England. A further four cases were confirmed in the same area on Tuesday before the latest figures were announced.
"We are taking all the action that is necessary within a protected zone," Brown said after chairing a meeting of the government's crisis-response cell COBRA.
After confirming the oubtreak on Friday, veterinarians said that a 12.5-mile (20 kilometre) control zone and a 93-mile protection zone have been set up around the bluetongue cases, confining animals to those areas.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told AFP that 11 animals, apparently all cows, on different farms within the protection zone were infected with the virus.
The protection zone ensures that any infected animals are not moved to areas where they would introduce the virus to healthy populations of midges and other insects which spread bluetongue.
Defra said bluetongue does not present any risks to humans, but in animals it cause high fevers, mouth ulcers, swollen heads and turns an infected animal's tongue blue.
It has hit livestock in Belgium, northern France, Germany and The Netherlands in the past year after previously being confined to countries on the Mediterranean basin.
Brown said health officials had not detected any new cases since Monday of foot and mouth, which spread from animal to animal.
He confirmed that animals on seven premises have been infected with foot and mouth, the same figure as five days earlier.
"While will not be complacent, we are taking action at a very high level within the protected zones there," he said.
Britain is battling to contain foot and mouth -- and avoid a repeat of the devastating 2001 outbreak -- after it re-emerged in the county of Surrey, southwest of London, on August 3.
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The Brits are really great in tackling this situation. Good job, Brittania!
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