Army battles against disease

The Army is helping to assess the situation

The British Army is used to planning military operations in great detail and is using this experience as it helps to tackle the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Almost 800 members of the armed forces are helping to manage the massive nationwide task of disposing of animal carcasses and transporting thousands more animals for slaughter.

The Army has been overseeing the burial of animals in Cumbria, assessing work needed elsewhere across the country, and has even sent Gurkhas to round up sheep in the Brecon Beacons.

And it says it is ready to respond to calls for more troops and resources if necessary.

Logistics and planning is a particular speciality of ours

MoD spokeswoman

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence told BBC News Online: "We are involved all over England at the moment, from Devon to Cumbria, in various different capacities.

"These range from groups of two in Yorkshire, assessing what work is needed in terms of destroying carcasses, to more than 100 in Cumbria, overseeing the digging of pits and getting sealed containers in."

Military logistic teams have been deployed in Devon, Cumbria, Worcestershire, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Dumfries and Galloway, County Durham, Northumberland, Brecon, Anglesey and Yorkshire.

The need for an operation in Essex is also being assessed.

Headquarters set up

The MoD spokeswoman said many different types of unit were involved, from local regiments to members of the Logistics Corps and military engineers.

The construction of pits and pyres had been left to commercial contractors, so no specialist military equipment had been required so far.

Soldiers have been overseeing work at the burial site in Cumbria

The Army's role had instead been to manage operational logistics, plan how to transport animals and ensure the necessary means of disposal is in place.

"Obviously logistics and planning is a particular speciality of ours," said the spokeswoman.

"That is what we do whether we are helping in Kosovo, Sierra Leone or pulling grannies out of floods."

A national logistic headquarters has now been established by 101 Logistic Brigade at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) in London.

Regional operations have been established in Exeter, Carlisle, Dumfries, York, Shrewsbury and Brecon.

The contingency plan still remains to assist with the slaughter

Major Guy Richardson

Each of these co-ordinates the activities of several teams of two or more, which are supervising the work done or required at various locations across the country.

In addition, military liaison officers are working in Maff offices in Gloucester, Leeds, Cardiff and Newcastle.

In some areas, regular troops assigned to local Territorial Army units have been helping out.

'Role may change'

And Gurkhas from the Infantry Training Centre in Brecon are helping to round up sheep grazing on the hills.

The Army has also been offering logistics advice and the service of its vets to Maff for longer than it has been operating on the ground.

Army vets have been called in to help as well

The MoD spokeswoman added that requests for more assistance would be considered.

"Our role will continue to change as the scale of the outbreak becomes more apparent," she said.

"We are responding to requests as and when Maff asks for more help.

"If a particular skill is needed and we have it, then we will pass it on."

It has emerged that the Army may be called on to help slaughter animals, if there are insufficient qualified slaughtermen.

Army spokesman Major Guy Richardson said: "The contingency plan still remains to assist with the slaughter. I don't think anybody can say this will definitely happen, but the next few days will be critical to that.

"We are going to have things unfolding throughout the country. You are going to have operations like this [Great Orton] going on across the country. The suggestion is that this will increase."