(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-04 11:01

LONDON - Foot and mouth disease has been confirmed in cattle on a farm in southern England, the British government said on Friday.

The agriculture department, Defra, said in a statement that movements of pigs and ruminant animals such as cows and sheep had been banned nationwide and a 10-km (six-mile) surveillance zone had been placed around the premises, a farm near Guildford in Surrey, close to London.

BBC news said Prime Minister Gordon Brown had spoken to top government officials and would break short his holiday in southwest England and return to London, as would the environment minister.

In 2001 an outbreak of foot and mouth led to millions of British cattle and sheep being destroyed. In the late 1980s of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, emerged in the country.