LONDON A rare suspected human case of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain focused growing concern Tuesday over the impact on public health of the government's mass slaughter and disposal of livestock.

The slaughterman, who has not been identified, is thought to have contracted the virus in Cumbria, northwest England, where he was employed disposing of carcasses, AFP reported.

If tests prove positive -- results are expected later Tuesday or Wednesday -- he would become only the second person in Britain to have contracted foot-and-mouth.

The first was during a previous outbreak in 1966.

Health officials insist his condition is "giving no cause for concern" and that it is extremely rare to contract the disease, which is normally affects only livestock.

They also stress there is no danger to public health and no risk of the man passing on the disease to other humans.

"This generally is a very mild disease in human beings and it is only very, very rarely that it transmits to human beings at all," said Angus Nichol, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Public Health Laboratory Service.

However the case has highlighted other concerns over the huge funeral pyres that have sprung up in affected areas to burn the thousands of animals being slaughtered every day.

So far, since the disease broke out ten weeks ago, more than 2.1 million animals, mainly cattle, sheep and pigs, have been slaughtered or earmarked for culling.

The total number of infected cases in Britain stood at 1,452 late Monday, an increase of 13 cases. The average weekly total has fallen to 16 from a high of more than 40 several weeks ago.