Although the numbers of new foot and mouth cases continued to fall, there was bad news for Swaledale where a new case was discovered amongst pigs, a matter of concern amongst vets.

The new outbreak, at Caldwell, near Richmond, was the 21st in North Yorkshire and a string of cases stretches right across the county from Hawes via Catterick to Whitby.

However, the national picture shows marked improvement, with just seven news cases reported yesterday and the embattled Agriculture Minster Nick Brown took the unusual step of writing a letter to every livestock farmer in the country.

In it, he said: "After two months of tough decisions, hard work and real distress for those affected, we now have real cause for cautious optimism in the battle against foot-and-mouth disease."