Rural Affairs minister Lord Whitty today rejected a call for foot and mouth vaccination trials which came from one of the Government's own organisations, the Countryside Agency.

In what appeared to by a guarded criticism of official handling of the crisis, agency chairman Ewen Cameron said a vaccination trial should be launched immediately because, in any future outbreaks, the public would not accept massive culls.

He estimated the cost of the disease at some £4 billion, much of it lost to rural businesses, and pressed for more Government support to help those businesses survive the coming winter.

Today, however, Lord Whitty said that although vaccination had always been an option, it had not been used - and would not be used in future - unless scientific advisers recommended it.

• The good news is that there were no new cases in the UK overnight and farmers in Scotland - which has been disease free for three months - are asking for EU permission to resume exports.