Foot-Mouth Tests Come Out Negative

Eight people tested so far for foot-and-mouth disease have been found not to have the virus, including a slaughterhouse worker who accidentally swallowed fluid from a decomposing carcass when it burst, the British government said.

Officials from the Public Health Laboratory Service said that further blood testing is needed but that it is highly unlikely that any of the eight has contracted the disease. Saliva and blood of five other patients were still being tested.

The last confirmed human case in Britain was a man infected in 1966 during the last epidemic. Human infections are extremely rare, and victims quickly recover.