AFTER more than a month, the foot and mouth vaccination row rumbles on after the Government admitted that it was "still on the agenda."

The NFU is still highly sceptical over a vaccination programme and has submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture a list of questions which its feels must be answered before it can back the move (see here).

But the union is now facing a widening split within its own ranks as many farmers, particularly those wishing to let cattle out of winter sheds into the fields, are putting up increasing demands that inoculation be introduced immediately.

To add to the Government's troubles, there is increasing evidence that the "spin" they are using to bring foreign tourists back to Britain is being widely misunderstood.

A group of top foreign tourism experts, now on a VIP tour of "open for business" Britain has revealed that thousands of would-be visitors from the USA and Japan are being put off because they believe that humans can catch foot and mouth - a grim follow on from the BSE crisis.

Many British consumers are also opposed to vaccination in case the vaccine enters the human food chain and, like BSE, causes as yet unknown threats to future human health.

Other developments include:

• A team of New Zealand scientists, studying the outbreak in case their own vital sheep industry ever faced similar problems, has come up with 35 possible causes for the start of the disease. Their Number One suspect: a single antelope imported to South West England during the 1970s.

• Farmers' markets, an attempt by the industry to sell produce themselves to bypass the major supermarket chains, are also being hit hard by the epidemic. Some 80% of these markets have closed, incurring a loss of £2.5 million.