IN TWO apparently contradictory moves, the Government has again managed to confuse farmers and others involved in the fight against foot and mouth.

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to suspend further work by contractors involved in "secondary cleansing" of farm buildings and vehicles on the grounds of cost - but a junior DEFRA minister on a visit to Yorkshire announced greatly tightened measures to disinfect vehicles visiting farms in the Thirsk area.

Lord Whitty, on a trip to Leeds and Northallerton, announced new rules under which vehicles that visit the 2,700 farms within the area of intensive biosecurity will have to be licensed. The licences will require that the vehicles are fully cleaned and disinfected before entering and leaving each premises.

The apparent clash between these two decisions upset NFU President Ben Gill, whose farm at Easingwold is within 20 miles of some of the outbreaks in the Thirsk cluster.

Whilst welcoming the tightening of controls there, he expressed grave doubts about the suspension of the secondary cleansing operation nationwide, complaining that such mixed messages were adding to the confusion already rife in the countryside.

He added: "The Government must re-instate the full clean up programme. Cleansing and disinfection are an integral part of fighting the disease but farmers have no way of paying for it on their own. This ludicrous decision must be reversed."