THE Government finally admitted today that the present foot and mouth crisis will overtake the devastation caused in the 1967 outbreak as the overnight total of 435, 000 animals slaughtered is already approaching the 1967 figures - with no end in sight.

And as Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown announced a further £150 million in aid for farmers who healthy livestock are to be culled, MAFF vets for trying to track down a report that the outbreak actually started in Wales as long ago as January - weeks before the country was alerted to the danger.

The extra funding for culled healthy animals will be particularly welcome in Wensleydale, where the slaughter of healthy 1,000 cattle and sheep has already started around a small cluster of affected farms near Hawes.

Over the border in Cumbria, matters have reached total crisis with fears that many upland farmers may abandon their farms altogether, leaving the land to return to scrub or bog.

In one of the most doom-laden statements ever issued by the Government-funded Countryside Agency, Chairman Ewen Cameron declared: "The destruction of large numbers of flocks may be the last straw for many farms."

The agency is pressing the Government for a change in direction in Government support for upland farms - which have been in decline for ten years or more - and Mr Cameron added: "If more farmers leave the business, there is a real danger that farms will be amalgamated into bigger and bigger holdings or the land abandoned altogether."

"Both scenarios could have dire consequences for the landscape of Cumbria."

Meanwhile, Government vets are investigated claims that a flock of sheep slaughtered this week in France had been imported from Wales in January - six weeks before the first officially reported outbreak in Northumbria.

It is possible, of course, that the sheep contracted the disease in France. But if they were already infected before they left Wales - which so far has escaped the worst ravages of the epidemic - it adds another nightmare dimension for vets with the immensely complex task of tracing back the progress of the disease and isolating possible contacts.


In another development affecting some of the finer aspects of country life, the Country Landowners' Association has postponed judging in one of its most prestigious events, the Farm and Country Building Awards.

The awards are designed to encourage high-quality, environmentally friendly building in the countryside for developments like small workshop space or high-tech offices using the Internet and other modern communications techniques. At present, judges should be touring Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland and Durham looking for suitable prizewinners but the scheme has been postponed until June at the earliest.