LONDON, England (CNN) -- Foot and mouth disease has been found
in cattle on a farm near Guildford in Surrey, England, British
government officials said Friday, prompting Prime Minister
Gordon Brown to call a meeting of the United Kingdom's crisis
panel. A farmworker disinfects a truckload of carcasses of
cattle slaughtered in England's 2001 foot and mouth epidemic.
The virus poses almost no threat to humans, but it diminishes
animals' productivity and ruins export markets. The virus showed
up in lab results Friday, Britain's Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said. The farm has been under
restrictions since late Thursday, when symptoms were reported to
a local animal health office, DEFRA said. All cattle on the
premises will be culled in accordance with the law. Brown is
returning to London Saturday morning "to chair a COBRA meeting
in the cabinet office. Our top priority is to prevent the spread
of this disease in order to protect farmers' stocks," Downing
Street said. The COBRA Commi