Britain desperately fought an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on Monday, burning thousands of animal carcasses after it was confirmed the disease had spread to seven sites across the country.
Commuters on the M25 London ring road could see billowing clouds smoke produced by two 100-meter (-yard) long piles of dead pigs and cattle on a farm at Little Warley in Essex, southeast England.
The air was filled with the sickly smell of charred carcasses, which included stock from the farm's neighboring Cheale Meats abattoir -- where the first case of foot-and-mouth was confirmed last week.
A lane between the abattoir and farm, along which the bodies were transported on Sunday, was thick with the smell of disinfectant, sprayed behind each container lorry used to shift the dead animals.
At Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, northeast England, believed to be the source of the British outbreak, agriculture ministry officials lit pyres on Sunday stacked with the carcasses of more than 800 slaughtered pigs.
They had been doused in oil and diesel and placed on top of 250 railway sleepers and 75 tons of coal.
The fire was expected to burn for up to two days and the ashes will be buried at the farm.
Work was expected to start later Monday on burning the carcasses of 200 cattle and 500 pigs at two other affected farms near Little Warley, ministry of agriculture officials said.
"Farmers' hopes go up in flames" is how the Guardian newspaper summed up the latest developments, a somber view shared by most of the national press on Monday.
Foot-and-mouth disease has now been confirmed at seven sites across Britain.
The latest is at a farm in Devon, southwest England, owned by a sheep dealer who exports animals to Europe. It has prompted fears that the disease might have spread across the Channel.
The Devon outbreak came as a blow to hopes that the disease had been contained by slaughtering and a seven-day ban on livestock movement.
Agriculture minister Nick Brown is due to make a statement to the House of Commons later on Monday before flying to Brussels to brief other European agriculture ministers.
Britain agreed with the European Union to impose a Europe-wide export ban on British meat and livestock last Wednesday -- LONDON (AFP)
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