An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on Duchy of Cornwall land on Dartmoor last night checked any tendency to British complacency about the continued spread of the disease.
While the total number of confirmed cases across the United Kingdom reached 69, ministers and officials appeared to draw some limited comfort from the emerging pattern of spread of the disease, with the junior Agriculture Minister, Baroness Hayman, saying the cases were "predominantly" related to animal movements which occurred before the imposition of the government ban.
And while refusing to speculate on whether or not the disease had reached its peak, the deputy chief veterinary officer, Mr Richard Cawthorne, said this was a "relatively self-limiting disease" which could be kept under control by tight restrictions.
"What we are looking 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," he said.
However, as some animals headed for slaughter and the food chain under the government's strict licensing scheme, the National Farmers' Union described the outbreak on Dartmoor as a "nightmare scenario".
A Duchy of Cornwall spokesman said they were "very concerned" by the outbreak on a tenant farm, owned by Prince Charles, on Dartmoor. The destruction of animals was quickly got under way after the discovery at the 600-acre farm.
The tenant's wife, Mrs Marion Winsor, said: "We have done everything at ground level to stop it, and if it is airborne there is nothing anybody can do to stop it. We have holed ourselves up here and have not even seen the postman for a week because he has been leaving things at the end of the drive, as has the milkman."
The regional spokesman for the NFU, Mr Ian Johnson, said the Dartmoor outbreak presented a "nightmare scenario", with some 46,000 cattle grazing on the moorland. Because there was no obvious transmission route and the farmer had not been to market since last September, Mr Johnson said, it was possible that the disease had spread via birds or on the wind.
The NFU's regional director, Mr Anthony Gibson, noting that the Dartmoor outbreak could not be linked to any others, said the risk of spread to other livestock on the moor was "a lot greater" in the middle of one of Britain's biggest livestock areas. Although Mr Winsor's animals are on enclosed land, their farm adjoins common land on which thousands of cattle and sheep roam freely.
The ministry yesterday confirmed that 232 applications had been received from abattoirs for inclusion in the restricted licensing scheme. The first movements of animals under licence were expected last night.
With an estimated 53,700 animals earmarked for slaughter because of the crisis, Mr Cawthorne said the number of cases was likely to climb for another week before beginning to decline. However, he stressed that secondary infections and other circumstances could prolong the outbreak.
A spokesman for the Royal Parks Agency yesterday confirmed that three royal parks - Richmond Park, Bushy Park and Hampton Court Home Park, all in south London - will remain closed for at least another week in an effort to prevent foot-and-mouth disease spreading to deer herds.
This followed earlier reports that the parks would be reopened from today. Continued closure means that residents living within the grounds of Richmond Park, who include Princess Alexandra, will continue to have restricted access.