Foot-and-mouth disease, the scourge of British farming, is back. On Friday, British officials confirmed a new outbreak of the disease in southern England. Four days later, a second case was confirmed, 2 miles from the initial hot zone.

“It’s our worst nightmare,” said an auctioneer at one of the country’s biggest livestock markets. “We feel the livestock markets had just about got back to where they were before the last outbreak and now this blow.”

In 2001, during the last outbreak, more than 6 million animals had to be slaughtered and burned. The resulting agriculture and tourism losses totaled approximately $17 billion.

The economic impact of this recent outbreak, though much smaller so far, is already being felt. Farming activities are coming to a complete standstill and the European Union has banned all British exports of fresh meat, live animals and milk products. The meat and livestock industry is losing $20 million per week due to the ban.

Additionally, concerns over local meat prices are growing since there is approximately only one week’s worth of meat in the food processing chain.

Because the government acted quickly to shut down all livestock movement, it is hoped that the disease is isolated to the relatively small area immediately surrounding the two confirmed cases, and that national operations will get back to normal soon. However, it is not yet evident how long the ban will last; it may be weeks or months before farm animal movement is allowed without special permits.

Apparently, a field that the initial 38 cattle were grazing on had recently flooded due to a sewage overflow. Shortly thereafter, some of the cattle were “off-color and drooling,” the owner told reporters.

Investigators are also focusing on one government-owned laboratory and one privately operated animal research laboratory, both of which use the same strain of virus that was found in the infected animals. Both vaccine laboratories are located within 5 miles of the outbreak. For more relating to this subject, read “The Cost of Greed” and “The Leper of Europe.”