61.   Swine fever, like mad cow disease, is usually controlled only by the destruction of infected animals.

62.   That usually comes from contact with infected animals.

63.   The disease remains endemic in the wild cape buffalo, but no one suggests killing off the infected animals.

64.   The disease has recently begun spreading to cattle here, with infected animals having been found in three small herds.

65.   The disease, however, is only spread to an animal or person eating an infected animal.

66.   The disease is thought to have spread among cattle in the United Kingdom when nervous system tissue from infected animals was ground up in feed.

67.   The disease, one of a family known as phleboviruses, can then be transmitted to humans by sandflies and mosquitoes who bite the infected animals.

68.   The investigation is expected to last for weeks as more evidence is gathered, specimens are tested and infected animals or animal products are sought.

69.   The virus poses no danger to people, even if they eat the meat of infected animals.

70.   The story said some experts believe that more than one million infected animals may have already been consumed in Britain.