THE Glorious Twelfth, the traditional August start of the grouse shooting season, may be another casualty of foot-and-mouth disease.

The news could be just as bad for the birds as it would be for the pockets of estate owners and other rural businesses.

With only three months to go, some moorland is still closed because it is covered by restriction notices keeping people out of infected areas.

If shooting cannot start, it will be a huge blow to the economy of the North-East countryside already hit by a drastic drop in visitor numbers in the early part of the outbreak.

Anthony Haslam, regional director of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) in the North-East, said: "There is little doubt that shoots will be affected as a result of the foot-and-mouth outbreak and that will mean more hardship in rural areas."

Despite a Government drive to reopen many countryside areas closed as a precautionary measure during the early part of the outbreak, a recent survey showed local councils were dragging their feet when it comes to lifting the bans.

The threat received a mixed reaction across the region last night.

The prospect of shoots being affected or even cancelled should not be too much of a problem for one London restaurateur, at least.

John Mayhew, who owns former Game Restaurant of the Year, Rules, in Covent Garden, inherited the Lartington estate, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, and is expecting business as usual on his 2,400 acres.

The estate's head keeper, Philip Morgan, said: "The whole of August is sold and everything is looking pretty straightforward.

"We have no sheep on the estate, so we are going ahead as normal."

At Allenheads, in Allendale, too, the season should open on time as all animals in the area have been culled.

But at the Earl of Strathmore's Holwick estate, in Upper Teesdale, head gamekeeper Andrew Dent is concerned because more than half of his 24,000 acres of moorland is still closed.

If old birds cannot be shot, they pass on parasites to the younger birds and this can affect their health.

He said: "If it affects us, it is going to be a huge loss."