ANIMAL Health Minister Elliot Morley has branded as "misleading" claims by a
Welsh vet that a TB outbreak could be "as serious, if not more serious" than foot and mouth disease.
Ten cattle were slaughtered last week at a farm in north Wales and movement restrictions were applied on 50 farms. In the first three months of this year, more than 700 cattle tested positive for TB in that region and were slaughtered as a precaution.
Mr Morley said TB in cattle was confined to a small percentage of the UK national herd and was an entirely different from FMD.
"Whilst both organisms are infectious," he said, "foot and mouth disease virus is highly contagious and rapidly spreads within and between herds, whereas both the spread of Mycobacterium bovisinfection and development of disease are much slower and for many years has been confined to limited areas of the country."
Updated: 09:20 Thursday, April 25, 2002
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