British Ministry to reveal how foot-and-mouth began

The British Government is blaming the foot-and-mouth outbreak on illegal foreign meat intended for a Chinese restaurant.

Britian's Agriculture Minister is to reveal how the foot-and-mouth outbreak was triggered in an address to the House of Commons.

Experts have identified contaminated illegal foreign meat used in pigswill as the key to how the 649 cases of the disease started.

Minster Nick Brown is to address the British Commons and is expected to say that illegal foreign meat used by the restaurant trade could be the cause of the outbreak.

A container of the meat clearly labelled for a Chinese restaurant was reportedly found hidden inside a load of household goods in North East England. It has not been specified precisely where the discovery was made.

The find came after the confirmation of a case in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland.

The disease is thought to have infected livestock after it was put in pigswill - produced under licence from the British Ministry of Agriculture for less than 100 farmers.

Mr Brown is also expected to propose tough restrictions on sheep movements and a ban on producing pigswill.