EU to ease FMD restrictions

The European Union is to reduce the extent of its restrictions on meat and meat products affected by Britain's recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

Deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said the move, which is expected to come into force in mid-November, would help British farmers begin to recover from the economic impact of the disease.

The UK agriculture sector has been hit hard by foot-and-mouth disease, which appeared after an earlier outbreak in August on September 12th at Egham in Surrey.

No further cases of the disease have been confirmed since September 30th but the EU has kept its strict regime of controls in place.