Suspected FMD cases in the UK have been confirmed as a false alarm

Lead: London, June 24 (Reuters) - British farmers are finally waiting for the news that they have been praying for - the final test for a blistered Pig found at a slaughterhouse last week turned out to be negative A spokesman for the Department of environment, food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said final tests on samples taken from the pig showed that the pig had neither swine blister disease nor foot-and-mouth disease, which hit the UK's rural economy hard last year "Everything has returned to normal and restrictions on livestock movement have been lifted," the spokesman told Reuters The livestock movement restrictions he mentioned relate to the slaughterhouse in Central England and the vast area around 34 farms nearby, where veterinarians were investigating which farm the sick pig came from The National Farmers Union (NFU) of Britain was relieved and delighted to hear the news "Good news! This is the news that farmers pray day and night We've been praying that it was just a false alarm, and now it's finally confirmed It's really great " A spokeswoman for the NFU said Last year Britain suffered the most serious foot-and-mouth disease in the world In order to put out the epidemic, the authorities slaughtered millions of livestock The economic loss caused by the disaster to the British government exceeded 8 billion pounds It was not until January that the OIE officially announced that the UK had eliminated foot-and-mouth disease.