THE Northern Echo today reveals that Government experts have drawn up plans to slaughter millions more animals in the face of mounting evidence that the fight against foot-and-mouth is not being won quickly enough.

It is important to stress, of course, that these are contingency plans, detailed in an official document obtained by this newspaper.

A number of possible scenarios are set out - the blackest involving the re-opening of burial sites, including the one at Tow Law in County Durham, and the disposal of another 4.5 million sheep.

Contingency plan or not, it is a clear indication of the level of concern that foot-and-mouth is still very much with us, and a lack of confidence that it will soon be gone.

Having criticised the Government for failing to have a cohesive strategy for dealing with such an epidemic in the first place, it would be hypocritical now to condemn it for putting these plans in place.

With new cases still being reported in North Yorkshire, and unprecedented security measures being put in place across the county, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had no choice.

It will, however, make hugely depressing reading for farmers and those whose livelihoods are dependent on tourism. We pray the worst scenario will not become a reality but its possibility has to be faced.

There will be huge public opposition to further mass slaughter on the scale painted in the Defra report. Opposition around disposal sites will be fiercely displayed and animal rights protestors, who have been surprisingly understated on this issue so far, will surely have a louder voice.

Last month, we commented that the Government's uncertainty over the role vaccination should play in fighting the epidemic had underlined its lack of a cohesive strategy.

Surely now, with the spectre of more killing on such a massive scale becoming seemingly more likely, vaccination must become part of the battle to contain a disease which has not gone away, despite the slaughter of millions of animals