THE NFU is helping to maintain a concerted campaign to encourage farmers to "think twice" at every stage of their day to protect their farms against foot-and-mouth disease.

A new government demonstration video aims to reinforce a series of precautions that farmers must take against the disease. It is part of an ongoing information campaign since the beginning of foot-and-mouth.

Seven key points are pressed home in the video:

l keep cattle and sheep separately;

l deal with sheep last if undertaking farm management procedures;

l keep all vehicles off land used by livestock;

l clean with a power hose and disinfect vehicles that must come on to the farm;

l clean and disinfect the driver as well as the vehicle;

l inspect stock regularly to check for signs of the disease;

l help out on neighbouring farms only if absolutely essential and ensure adequate precautions.

The demonstration video includes techniques like checking fences to reduce the danger of animals breaking out; a farmer being careful to avoid driving over slurry on a road and a farmer changing into clean overalls.

The NFU is working with DEFRA to look at how the video can best be distributed.