Election dilemma as disease spreads

The battle to dispose of carcasses continues

Tony Blair remains tight-lipped about the prospect of a May general election, as the UK's farming community anxiously awaits a decision on a vaccination programme to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth.

The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food's (Maff) decision to scale down daily updates on the spread of the disease has been criticised by the Conservatives.

The move comes as senior archbishops joined many farmers and Tory leader William Hague in calling for the postponement of the expected May election until the countryside is no longer in the grip of the disease.

Crisis in the UK

Total confirmed cases 831

832,000 animals due for slaughter

542,000 already slaughtered

387,000 carcasses destroyed

Speaking during a visit to a foot-and-mouth "regional nerve centre" in Newcastle, Mr Blair refused to answer questions about potential election dates and insisted the government was still pursuing the right policy to tackle the disease.

The government is delaying its decision on vaccinating against foot-and-mouth until Monday, after signs that a mass cull of livestock is starting to work.

Desperate farmers

Tony Blair also visited Dumfries and Galloway on Friday, where a pre-emptive cull was said to be having a positive impact on controlling the outbreak.

Maff has been giving twice-daily updates on new confirmed cases since the outbreak began and the bulletins have been followed closely by farmers desperate to track the progress of the disease.

Tony Blair insists the UK has the right foot-and-mouth policy

Each day's total will now only be available the following morning.

The move was condemned by shadow agriculture minister Tim Yeo.

"This will be seen as a matter of great concern amongst the farming community who rely on up-dates from Maff on the latest situation," he said.

"It will also make it harder to judge whether the crisis is still getting worse."

No substitute

Refusing to be drawn on the election issue, Mr Blair would only say on Friday he was listening carefully to the arguments, and was determined to do what was "right for the country".

Speaking later in Newcastle, Mr Blair said vaccinations could not be considered as a substitute for the slaughter programme.

He said: "It would be irresponsible not to look at every single option but vaccination could not be a substitute for the slaughtering out of infected premises.

"The essence of this is the speed at which we do it.

"There is no doubt the policy is the right policy to contain the disease, which is to slaughter."

Clergy plea

There are currently 831 confirmed cases nationwide.

Local elections are planned for May, with a general election widely expected to be called at the same time.

But the Archbishop of York, together with fellow bishops, including the Archbishop of Wales, urged Mr Blair on Friday to postpone any decision until later in the year.

The slaughter has generated thousands of carcasses

Downing Street said farmers were hoping that if the time taken from the first report of a case to the slaughter of infected animals could be reduced to 24 hours in every case then vaccination might not be needed.

A new mass burial site for infected sheep carcasses is being created to deal with the foot-and-mouth crisis in the north east.

The old open-cast coal site in Chapman's Well, near Annfield Plain, County Durham, will be prepared over the weekend to take 150,000 carcasses.

Click here to see 1967 foot-and-mouth figures compared to 2001 figures.

Phil Hudson, chief dairy adviser to the NFU, told BBC News Online that, although it was too early to say if the cull was working, the signs were "encouraging".

Scottish NFU leader Jim Walker told BBC News 24 farmers had asked Mr Blair "with one voice" not to resort to vaccination now that a "really co-ordinated approach seemed to be working".

Labour peer Lord Haskins has also warned that Britain could face milk shortages if the government does not vaccinate dairy herds against foot-and-mouth, because milk is difficult to import.

The latest casualties of the outbreak are county shows in Norfolk and Suffolk, cancelled although East Anglia remains free of the disease.

But the organisers of Aintree's Grand National are confident that event will happen on 7 April with stringent disinfectant procedures.

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