Eight new cases around Hexham in Northumberland in four days; another two suspected cases and the slaughter of thousands more animals. Foot-and-mouth has caught out farmers once again and returned to the north-east of England after a break of nearly three months.
In Cumbria the response by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to a cluster of new cases in June was to introduce strict bio-security measures, which proved successful.
The cluster was contained, and the hope among farmers in Northumberland is that similar measures on their farms, lanes and open land will be just as effective in eradicating the virus.
The source of the Northumberland outbreak is unknown. The area affected is close to the farm which is the suspected source of the initial devastating outbreak in February. But the return of the disease to the north-east, with the associated and inevitable slaughter of infected and healthy animals, is a demoralising blow for the farming community.
Farmers who believed they had escaped the disease or had begun restocking farms have suddenly been plunged into a disaster for which they know most of Britain has little time or sympathy.
In the urban sprawls of London and Cardiff, the plight of the Northumberland farmer seems far away, and most "townies" believe poor husbandry contributed to the spread of the original outbreak of foot-and-mouth, not least because reports of appalling conditions on some farms were being published nearly every day.
The long gaps between new cases, the relaxation of controls on countryside activities, and even the British government's announcement of several inquiries into the outbreak all contributed to the feeling among the non-farming community that foot-and-mouth was all but over.
Despite the appearance of the new clusters, however, the National Farmers' Union and DEFRA believe they are just the tail-end of the disease. Before June's general election, official guidance suggested the disease would be over during the summer, but even that prediction was hastily revised with the Cumbria outbreak and suspected cases in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, which had been disease-free, in early August.
And although scientists said warm weather hindered the spread of the disease, the new cases have still emerged and multiplied in Northumberland, where it has been mild.
At the Newcastle Disease Emergency Control Centre where the investigation into the Northumberland outbreak is being co-ordinated, scientists and vets hope the 400-square mile bio-security zone surrounding Hexham will prevent the spread of the disease into other areas.
But the fear is not confined to Northumberland. The area is close to the border with Scotland, and National Farmers' Union officials have been urging farmers in Scotland to maintain foot-and-mouth precautions. The country has only two more days to wait to pass the three-month disease-free marker when it can reapply for livestock export licences.
The message in Northern Ireland is the same, and while the farming community is not immediately at risk following the Northumberland outbreak, farmers have been told to maintain the "fortress farming" attitude to ensure there are no more cases.
Relaxing disinfection measures or the reopening of parts of the English countryside may have caused the Northumberland outbreak. But whatever the cause, the sting in the tail of the foot-and-mouth outbreak is proving particularly nasty.
