The disease appears to have jumped to a hilltop holding at Westbrook from similar high ground in Queensbury, a Bradford suburb five miles west, where the herds on a farm were slaughtered on March 7 and a nearby farm's 10 days later. Although still small, the infected pocket is matched by others in urban areas, including two cases each in Wolverhampton and Stoke, and others close to the Kentish ports, from Margate to Dover. Economic effects include closure of abattoirs, one within a mile of the Leeds outbreak, and potentially damaging curbs on urban tourism, on top of the devastation of the holiday industry in rural areas and national parks. Sections of Leeds country way, a 65-mile footpath round the city, have been closed, along with an urban farm and bird garden at two summer attractions, Temple Newsam and Lotherton Park. The network of smallholdings close to many cities, often supplying milk to dairy companies, makes similar damage to urban tourism almost certain.
Weekend walk columns in city newspapers have started to suggest central parks and urban exploration.
Read the first of a series of regular interviews with people affected by the crisis.