HILL farmers are facing catastrophe with fears that hundreds of thousands of sheep could be slaughtered to try to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown yesterday revealed that up to half a million sheep due to start lambing may have to be culled, as the risk of transporting them from winter quarters is too great.

The news comes as the total number of cases nationwide rose by 19 to 183, including fresh outbreaks near Crook, County Durham, and at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland.

The scale of the crisis in the countryside has prompted Prime Minister Tony Blair to hold a series of talks starting today with farmers and others affected by the crisis.

The proposed cull would affect sheep which are kept away from their home farms over the winter and moved back for lambing, a common practice among hill farmers in County Durham and North Yorkshire.

But restrictions on livestock movements mean many could not return to their farms and would be at risk if they were unattended during lambing.

Mr Brown said transporting them to other farms could create an unacceptable risk of infecting other sites.

He said the crisis was now of a "different order" than previously thought, but insisted it was still under control.

John Rider, NFU county chairman for North Riding and County Durham, said if the cull was carried out it would be a disaster for hill farmers.

He said: "It is absolutely staggering and a quite horrendous possibility. It is almost thinking the unthinkable.

"The impact on the hill farming community would be totally catastrophic and it is just such an awful decision to have to make."

Teesdale hill farmer and former NFU county chairman Richard Betton said the cull might be the only way to stop the disease from spreading.

He said: "For farmers who have healthy stock it is heartbreaking.

"Sometimes if a fire gets out of control, the only way to stop it spreading is to cut a break in the forest. It is a drastic measure, but it is probably the only way you can control it in an all-stock area."

But he said a mass slaughter would have a devastating impact on hill farming, and would spell the end for many families who had built up flocks over generations.

He said: "It will be very difficult to accept for those who are affected, but if it is going to stop foot-and-mouth we will have to reluctantly back it.

"The implications are horrendous for the future of farming, but the priority has got to be to control and eradicate foot-and-mouth."

A spokesman for the NFU North-East region said: "This is really a worst case scenario, but it is for animal welfare reasons. Pregnant ewes do have problems during lambing and if there is no one there to tend to them they would suffer and lambs would die."

Mr Blair announced last night that he was to begin a series of talks with farmers and others involved in the rural economy, including hoteliers and hauliers who have been hit by the outbreak.

He said: "I will be having a series of meetings, not just with the farmers, but with the wider rural community, to see what help we can give them."

Chief Veterinary Officer Jim Scudamore said the country was now in the throes of a "major outbreak".

Yesterday's confirmed cases took the total to 13 in County Durham, 11 in other parts of the North-East and one in North Yorkshire.

Mr Scudamore said the bulk of cases were still being put down to disease spread as a result of livestock movements through Longtown market in Cumbria, and through a sheep dealer in Devon.

A total of 155,000 animals have so far been earmarked for slaughter, with 116,000 of those already culled