The change of thinking emerged unexpectedly on Wednesday night when Downing Street announced that Phoenix, the week-old calf which survived a cull on a Devon farm, had won a reprieve. In the Commons on Thursday, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown will tell MPs in a statement that for the last seven-day period, the total number of new cases fell below 100 for the first time in eight weeks. But the Conservatives called on the government for an urgent explanation of the scientific basis for revising the slaughter policy. Phoenix rises He acknowledged that it had worked, but at a very high cost. They have been slaughtered because of an accident of topography.
Phoenix is a very good case in point.
That calf is on a farm three miles away from the outbreak farm. The saved calf Phoenix was discovered lying next to its dead mother, which had been slaughtered as part of a contiguous cull five days previously at 35-acre Clarence Farm in Membury, Devon. Not complacent' Meanwhile health experts have confirmed they are investigating three separate suspected human cases of the disease. Despite the cull relaxation, Mr Blair, who is travelling to Cumbria on Thursday, will warn there is no room for complacency and the government will not let its guard drop. Downing Street said the prime minister wanted to use his visit to see the changes since his last trip in March.