Report suspicions as soon as possible

ONE of the latest casualties of the foot and mouth crisis has advice for other farmers who are checking their sheep for the disease.

Organic farmer Ross Cherrington of Jacobstowe said MAFF vets had admitted to him that the disease was very hard to spot in sheep because blisters on their feet — a vital warning sign — were rubbing off in all the wet weather.

Mr Cherrington, whose farm consisting of 220 sheep and 84 cattle, was confirmed with foot and mouth on Tuesday, said if any sheep were very lame in more than one foot the farmer should contact MAFF as soon as possible.

'If farmers have any suspicions at all they should report it sooner rather than later,' he said. 'We kept looking for blisters but we could not see any and to us the symptoms of the sheep suggested foot rot.

'The vets have told us that the mud is scrapping off the blisters and hence making the disease very hard to detect in sheep.'

The farmer said the vets were desperate to slow down the time between suspicion and confirmation to reduce the spread of the disease and wanted farmers to raise suspicions as early as possible.

It was only when Mr Cherrington put his sheep next to his cattle that he realised they may have foot and mouth.

'In cattle and pigs detecting the disease is a doddle,' he said. 'Cattle drool and slobber like they have rabies and pigs have very visible blisters on their snouts. Both are also very lame.'

The source of Mr Cherrington's outbreak is still being investigated. He said the animals were half a mile from the road and no-one had been on or off the farm in two weeks.