A FARMER must have known his pigs had foot-and-mouth disease up to 12 days before the epidemic swept Britain - but failed to raise the alarm, a court heard yesterday.

Inspectors who raided Bobby Waugh's farm found 80 per cent of his 527 pigs were riddled with the disease but, despite the tell-tale lesions, he had not informed the authorities.

A district judge heard how a search of his premises uncovered animal carcasses that had been left to rot in slurry and barrels full of animal pieces.

The 56-year-old appeared before magistrates at Bedlington yesterday where he denied 16 breaches of the Animal Health Act.

The court heard how the epidemic was discovered at an abattoir in Essex on February 19 last year. Experts from the then Ministry of Agriculture tracked down the possible source and their checks led them to Waugh's Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland.

The court heard how pigs on the smallholding were obviously suffering from the virus.

Prosecutor Paddy Cosgrove, QC, told the court: "No report of the presence of the disease had been made by anyone at Burnside Farm and nothing had been done to alleviate the animals' suffering.

"Bobby Waugh must have known many of his pigs had foot-and-mouth disease."

Mr Cosgrove added: "They could not have been missed by someone as experienced as the defendant and someone who was making daily observations as the defendant undoubtedly said he was doing."

Waugh was licensed to feed his animals treated swill, but when inspectors raided the farm they found only untreated swill.

Waugh, from Pallion, Sunderland, denies failing to notify officials of a foot-and-mouth outbreak; cruelty to animals; bringing unprocessed waste on to his premises; feeding unprocessed waste; failure to dispose of animal by-products; and failure to record pig movements.

The court heard how the same charges against Waugh's brother, Ronald, were unlikely to proceed because he is terminally ill.

The case continues.

Read more about foot-and-mouth here.