NORMANDY (England): British farmers voiced anger on Sunday at signs that a vaccine research laboratory may have been the source of a foot and mouth outbreak, fuelling fears of a repeat of a devastating 2001 epidemic.

Anxiety was highest in the immediate vicinity of the farm southwest of London where the outbreak was confirmed on Friday. The farm is only a few miles away from an animal health research site.

The National Farmers’ Union said it was “deeply concerned” that the outbreak may have originated from the Pirbright site shared by the government-run Institute of Animal Health and a private firm manufacturing vaccines. The outbreak on Friday, on a farm a few miles from the Pirbright site southwest of London, has revived the spectre of the 2001 epidemic in which up to 10 million animals were slaughtered on huge pyres.—AFP