Britain’s Queen Elizabeth fears her prized cattle could be slaughtered because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
The queen has several farms on the 5,000 acres surrounding her Berkshire residence, Windsor Castle, which fall within a six-mile surveillance zone set up to stop the spread of the highly contagious viral disease which effects cattle.
The 400 cows and 2,000 pigs farmed on the Windsor Great Park estate are now in danger of being culled as part of efforts to contain the virus.
A source told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper: ‘The queen is very angry that farm staff did not take action sooner to move her cattle to safety.
‘She believes that more steps to protect them should have been taken and has made her feelings known to her farm manager in phone calls from her Scottish residence, Balmoral.’ The Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) enforced the surveillance zone after the foot-and-mouth disease was found at a Surrey farm in Egham.
The queen is said to be particularly concerned about the cattle on her 500-acre dairy farm.
The farm was founded by Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert and has two herds of cows, one Jersey and the other Ayrshire.
The Jersey herd is the oldest of its kind in the country, and some of its cattle can be traced back to Albert’s first cow Pretty, who arrived on the farm in 1871.
A spokesperson for DEFRA insists the inclusion of the Windsor Great Park estate in the surveillance zone did not make it inevitable that her cattle will be culled.
‘There are many farms within that surveillance zone but animals will only be slaughtered if there are definite signs foot-and-mouth has been found there.’
© bangshowbiz.biz
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