Britain ? Britain relaxed a nationwide ban on moving livestock Wednesday after authorities isolated the foot-and-mouth virus to a region near a government laboratory and a private company that developed vaccines for the disease.

Chief veterinarian Debby Reynolds said farmers outside a six-mile surveillance zone set up around the farms where the outbreaks occurred would be able to send their animals to slaughterhouses as of midnight Wednesday.

Health and safety experts were working to determine whether the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak came from a high-security government laboratory or from a private pharmaceutical company on the same site – and whether its spread was accidental or deliberate.