Britain official reports found case of foot and mouth disease

Britain official reports found case of foot and mouth disease

A suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease was found in Britain on Wednesday, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on its Web site.

The suspected disease was found at a farm 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where an outbreak in August led to mass culls of cattle stock, the agency said.

Officials have set up a three-mile (five-kilometer) exclusion zone around the affected area in Surrey, a county on the outskirts of London.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will chair an emergency meeting of senior officials and a pre-emptive cull of cattle in the affected area has started, British media reported.