Farm disease 'doubled by delay'

Moving cattle should have been banned earlier, says Woolhouse

The number of cases of foot-and-mouth disease could have been halved if a ban on livestock movements had been introduced earlier, one of the government's leading scientific advisers has said.

Professor Mark Woolhouse said halting cattle movements 72 hours earlier would have considerably reduced the impact of the outbreak, during evidence to MPs environment and rural affairs committee.

More than 22,000 cases of the disease have been confirmed since the outbreak began in February but ministers have always argued they acted promptly.

Professor Woolhouse was one of the scientists brought in to advise the government after the disease spiralled out of control in March.

Hindsight view

Prof Woolhouse reminded MPs on Wednesday that there were 70-80 cases on 23 February - three days after the first case was discovered.

"With hindsight, if we had imposed a national movement ban three days earlier our estimation is that the epidemic would have been one third or one half smaller than it actually was," he said.

"You can translate that into a lot of livestock and a lot of money."

The news comes after the government announced it was giving an extra £2m to farmers and their families who have suffered as a result of the restrictions on livestock movement imposed due to the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Between March and September, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs paid out more than £13m to support charities working with affected farmers.

And the additional £2m will match private donations to charities received between 1 October and 1 January, Rural Affairs Minister, Alun Michael told a conference in Shrewsbury on Tuesday.