Tests have confirmed a second outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a British farm near the first one, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said on Tuesday.

The infected animals were found on a farm south of London within a protection zone set up around the first outbreak, which was confirmed Friday.

The new outbreaks have triggered fears of a repeat of a 2001 foot and mouth epidemic which saw up to 10 million animals slaughtered and devastated Britain’s farming industry. After the first outbreak, near the village of Normandy in Surrey, some 120 cattle were slaughtered, of which three have so far found to be infected with foot and mouth.

Experts ordered a further 50 cattle to be culled in the second suspect case, which is also in the three kilometre (two mile) protection zone around the first outbreak.

Investigations into the source of the first outbreak have centred on the nearby Pirbright research centre, after tests found that the virus involved was similar to one made there.

The type of virus in the second outbreak was not immediately confirmed, but Benn said the speed with which it was confirmed showed that the government’s plans were working.

“It shows that the arrangements that we have put in place in the protection and surveillance zones have worked to identify this further outbreak in view of this new development,” he said.

The first epidemic battered the farming and tourism industries, costing Britain’s economy an estimated eight billion pounds (16.3 billion dollars, 11.9 billion euros).

The grisly spectacle of cattle carcasses ablaze on giant pyres and dark smoke filling the air became a familiar distressing sight across the country as between 6.5 and 10 million animals were culled.

The outbreak caused trauma and misery for farmers already hammered by the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease), and many were driven out of business.

In 2001, the rural tourism industry was blighted by the closure of pathways across open land, restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the highly infectious disease.

The army was called in to help deal with the crisis and even the general and local elections date was postponed, the first such delay since World War II.

A total of 2,026 cases of foot and mouth were confirmed the length and breadth of Great Britain between February 20 and September 30, 2001.

The first outbreak was confirmed in pigs at an abattoir in Essex, eastern England on February 20, 2001. However, the epidemic’s origin was traced to a pig unit in Northumberland, north-eastern England.

By the end of March, up to 50 cases a day were being confirmed nation-wide and outbreaks occurred elsewhere in Europe.