MAFF inquired about incinerating animals before outbreak

Britain's Ministry of Agriculture inquired about incinerating animals infected with foot-and-mouth two weeks before the outbreak became public knowledge.

UK timber merchants said officials approached them about supplies of wood.

No orders for wood were made at the time, but they were asked whether they would be interested in being suppliers in case of an outbreak. MAFF said the calls may have been part of an emergency planning exercise.

It was "completely untrue" to suggest MAFF had any prior knowledge of the disease reaching Britain before the emergence of the first known case in an Essex abattoir, said a statement.

One of the timber merchants, Mike Littlehales, said the last time he received such an approach was at the time of the 1967 outbreak.

Mr Littlehales, who is now retired, said: "I got this call from a lady who said 'This is the Ministry of Agriculture. Would you be interested in supplying timber in case of foot-and-mouth?' because she wanted to update her records.

"When I heard it a couple of weeks later on the television about the outbreak, I said to my wife 'That seems very strange, that lady phoning me up a couple of weeks ago about the timber for foot-and-mouth. I wonder if they already knew then'."

Staffordshire timber merchant Fran Talbot claims she had a similar experience: "They wanted the timber in case of foot-and-mouth and I know they burn animals.

"What would you think if you had a phone call like that and your business was timber? You would immediately think something was going on, for them to ring two weeks before an outbreak."

In a statement, MAFF replied: "From time to time we do emergency planning exercises. We are not aware if this was one of these cases. It is completely untrue that we knew about the outbreak before the Essex case emerged."