The foot-and-mouth crisis is again threatening a 400-strong deer herd at Raby Castle, near Staindrop, County Durham.

The ancestral home of Lord Barnard is now almost completely surrounded by the disease, after confirmation that another farm at nearby Keverstone Grange is infected.

Speaking yesterday, Lord Barnard said: "The fact we are almost completely surrounded by foot-and-mouth is a great worry.

"The deer have been fenced off and are a reasonable distance from Keverstone, but all we can do now is keep our fingers crossed.

A new case of the disease was confirmed at a farm near Darlington yesterday. The Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) confirmed that the Forster family's Killerby Farm, at Killerby, near Piercebridge, as foot-and-mouth case number 1,591.

It was one of four new cases confirmed across the country.

About 106 cattle and a number of calves will have to be destroyed at the Piercebridge farm.

The number of confirmed outbreaks in North Yorkshire rose to 29 yesterday, as two more cases were revealed.

Maff officials confirmed that livestock at Low Trenhouse Farm, Malham Moor, Settle, were infected with the disease.

Another case was confirmed at Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Read more about Foot-and-Mouth here.