Foot-and-mouth 'cover up' claims dismissed

The British Government is denying claims it knew of the foot-and-mouth outbreak weeks before it was made public.

The claims were made as it emerged that officials questioned timber merchants about the availability of wood for funeral pyres well in advance of the first case.

A British Ministry of Agriculture spokesman insisted such moves had been part of emergency procedures to safeguard against the disease should it ever occur.

He also claimed the exercise had proved extremely valuable in the light of the events which followed.

But not everyone looked set to be convinced by the official explanation as further criticism was levelled at the Government's handling of the crisis.

Eleven more cases, all in counties previously affected by the outbreak, have been confirmed this morning, taking the total number of outbreaks to 411 with some 350,000 animals either already slaughtered or condemned.

Claims that British Ministry officials had been plotting giant funeral pyres well in advance of the first outbreak emerged as timber merchants came forward to say they had been approached.

Among them was Franz Talbot whose husband runs a timber merchants at Swotting near Cockleshell, Staffs. She said she received a telephone call from a MAFF official at the beginning of February inquiring about timber supplies.

She said: "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."

But the MAFF spokesman insisted Mrs Talbot had misunderstood the request, which had followed the purchase of wood to burn pigs infected with swine fever.