When was foot and mouth discovered?
Updated on 06 August 2007
Our science correspondent Julian Rush reports from Pirbright on the latest stages of the investigation.
It's an urgent investigation and many of the facts should be known tomorrow, but already the speculation is at fever pitch.
So far the good news is that there have been no new cases in the last 24 hours. But we've discovered evidence that the disease may have been noticed five days earlier than previously thought.
A report recently published on the World Organisation for Animal Health's (aka OIE) website states that the start date of the event was 29 July 2007 - five days prior to when the farmer first alerted Defra.
Defra has said that this date, which they are required to inform the OIE of, indicates when "clinical signs could have first been present in the animals", based on information supplied by the farmer after he had contacted them - although this could have been early signs that the animals were unwell.
World Organisation for Animal Health alert (OIE)
An alert, submitted by the Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Debby Reynolds to the OIE states the 'start of event' was 29 July 2007.
Read the report
So far foot and mouth has not spread.
More than two thousand animals in the protection zone are being tested. The only cases of foot and mouth remain those discovered on Friday at the farm of Roger Pride.
The most likely source of the outbreak remains the laboratories at
Pirbright. There are two facilities on the site, the government run Institute for Animal Health and the privately run Merial lab. Infected cattle were found on fields just to the south of the labs and at the farm itself near Elstead.
Tonight the government confirmed that it is ordering fresh stocks of vaccine from Merial, the lab under suspicion. Merial says it can't find any evidence it was responsible.
The government has imposed 3km protection zones around the sites as well as a broader 10km surveillance zone around the whole area.
The National Farmers' Union said its members would be "rightly horrified" if a vaccine developed at Pirbright had caused the outbreak.
But tonight the government confirmed that it is ordering fresh stocks of vaccine from Merial, the lab under suspicion. Merial says it can't find any evidence it was responsible.
