The Netherlands have now confirmed three cases of Foot and Mouth - they can not find the source of infection which is very scary as it means they also don't know the pattern of likely spread, if any.

We had another 40 new cases confirmed yesterday - 85 in two days!!

We have been told not to expect the peak of the disease until May - farmers under intolerable pressure can see no end or relief.

BSE only affects cows. There are, however many variants of spongiform ecephalitis - CJD in humans, scrapies in sheep. There is a known feline variant. It is also known to affect some wild deer populations in the USA.