The epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK tonight rose to 69 confirmed cases across mainland Britain and Northern Ireland, a spokesman for the ministry of agriculture said.
But the ministry said it had no details of locations for the latest cases at present.
There are 68 cases on the mainland and one in Northern Ireland.
Earlier, MAFF vets identified three new cases in Devon, three in Tyne and Wear, one in Scotland and one in Cornwall.
At a briefing earlier, officials said there were 53,700 animals earmarked for slaughter as a result of the epidemic.
Deputy chief veterinary officer Richard Cawthorne refused to speculate on whether the outbreak had reached its peak.
But he said it was a "relatively self-limiting disease" which could be kept under control by tight restrictions.
"What we are looking at at the moment is a situation where the disease is not spreading by being transmitted directly or by wind-borne means.
"But it is still being distributed among sheep as the sheep are incubating it."
Junior Agriculture Minister Baroness Hayman said there were still no new confirmed cases in Europe.
One suspected case in Belgium had been eliminated, but MAFF had no news on the progress of a suspicious case in Denmark.
PA