Chief Vet: we got it wrong on farm virus

The Chief Vet admitted yesterday that the Government's handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis had not been a success.

Jim Scudamore told MPs on the Environment Select Committee that at one stage during the epidemic the Government had "run out of vets". And he admitted that the decision by ministers to rule out vaccinations was "certainly not a success".

Mr Scudamore said that there needed to be a "nationally agreed contingency plan" to deal with foot-and-mouth disease in future.

He admitted that the Government had paid vets £250 a day to attract them during the crisis. And he said that some of them were being paid to perform tasks that did not require a qualified vet.

The Government yesterday introduced new powers to allow it to overrule farmers' objections to the slaughter of animals that may have the disease.

Millions of sheep that are susceptible to scrapie, a BSE-like brain disease, could also be culled when the Animal Health Bill becomes law.

The bill will enable the Government to slaughter "any animal to prevent the spread of the disease".

Farmers will not be able to go to court to stop the cull unless they "judicially review" the entire policy.