Britain announced today its mass cull of healthy cattle designed to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth disease was to be all but stopped because the number of new outbreaks was waning.
Agriculture Minister Mr Nick Brown said the government's policy to slaughter all livestock on farms surrounding infected sites would be eased - a move that spared the life of a new-born white calf called Phoenix, which had aroused public sympathy in Britain.
Mr Brown told the British parliament pigs and sheep on farms neighbouring infected sites would still be culled, but said: "Cattle may, however, be spared, if there is adequate bio-security."
"Local vets inspecting farms would judge which cows would be excluded from the cull," Mr Brown said, and would continue to check them regularly for any signs of the disease.
To head off charges that the government had made a policy U-turn after a public outcry over the symbolic new-born calf, Mr Brown said the new instructions were not a relaxing of rules but were refinements to the previous policy.
Figures today showed that 1,481 sites had been confirmed as infected with foot-and-mouth disease.
Test results on three suspected human cases of the disease - including one involving a slaughterman who developed symptoms after being sprayed with entrails from a rotting carcass that exploded - are expected early next week.
The government's previous culling policy had been designed to create firebreaks around infected farms to help prevent the spread of the virulent livestock disease. But animal charities and some farmers slammed the cull as a needless slaughter of healthy animals.