New On-Farm Quick Test for Foot-and-Mouth

The device uses the same technology as home pregnancy tests and can reveal if foot-and-mouth is present within 10 minutes of taking a sample.

A rapid test was rejected by the Ministry of Agriculture at the height of the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, which meant thousands of animals had to be slaughtered before test results were revealed to be negative.

Dr Nigel Ferris of the Institute of Animal Health’s Pirbright Laboratory has been helping to develop the technology for six years and he hopes the device could save mass slaughter in future outbreaks