Foot-and-mouth fears raised after sheep is culled

Fears about foot-and-mouth disease returned to Cumbria yesterday when agriculture officials revealed that a sheep had been found with antibodies of the disease.

The sheep was the first in the county's "sentinel" herds – put out to graze for 28 days to test the ground before restocking commences – to have tested positive for antibodies, indicating that it may have been in contact with the infection.

Though rumours of new foot-and-mouth cases going undeclared by the Department for Rural Affairs (Defra) have been rife across Cumbria in recent weeks, the ministry said that only one sheep in a flock of more than 170, at a farm near Kirkby Stephen, was found to be carrying antibodies after vigorous surveillance. The animal was killed yesterday.

John Houlihan, the deputy regional operations director at Defra in Cumbria, said: "It's not unexpected to find a sheep carrying antibodies after rigorous testing. The farmer was going through the restocking process using ... sheep which had to be tested as part of our procedures." A second sample has been taken to see if the animal had the live virus – a far more serious, though statistically unlikely outcome – and the results are expected to be returned in a week.

"The animal has been removed and will be incinerated," Mr Houlihan said. "We don't want farmers to fear that we will be re-opening burial pits. That is not the case. This needs to be out in the open so people seeing activity around farms – such as vets in white suits – do not become unduly concerned."

The last antibodies detected in Cumbria coincided with intense surveillance in December. But Defra's edginess about antibodies was demonstrated in the North Tyne valley, early last month, when the discovery of them in two sheep resulted in the cull of a herd of 2,100 as a precaution. It meant that only a few hours into the new year, lorries carried carcasses from Bellingham to a Tyneside disposal site, a grim reminder of last year's horrors.