- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday March 28 2001 09.08 BST
In a second move that will change market towns for ever, the government also announced restrictions on the movement of animals - mainly sheep whose undocumented sale and resale helped to spread the disease.
In future they will not be shipped round the country from market to market but will have to stay on one farm for 20 days to prevent the rapid spread of disease. Pigswill will also be banned.
In a long Commons statement, Mr Brown ran through the massive programme now under way to curtail the epidemic. With the crisis unabated, Tony Blair and his ministers are still hesitating between a May 3 and June 7 general election and for the first time yesterday Downing Street admitted that options for postponing the May 3 local elections are being considered.
In a further sign that the government is having to rethink its strategy, Mr Brown gave his strongest hint that the census will not go ahead on April 29, four days before the planned local elections.
He told MPs: "The census is not under way yet, but we are keeping the issue under review. Nothing should be done that will risk the spread of the disease and that includes inappropriate movements on farms." The census was last delayed in 1941.
Facing a subdued and despairing Commons, the minister stressed that "vaccination is not an easy option" and could delay full return to disease-free status and the export market. He said his representative on the EU's standing veterinary committee was seeking a "contingent decision" permitting vaccination "so that it can be deployed immediately if we conclude that it is the right approach".
Without endorsing any of the theories behind the out break - which Mr Brown called "unprecedented internationally" in its speed and scale - the minister conceded that one explanation could be "illegal commercial imports of meat where the contents have not been declared".
Controls, currently made on only 20% of meat imports, will be tightened. That was as close as he got to acknowledging reports that waste from a Chinese restaurant were used in pigswill at the farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, where the original outbreak is believed to have gone unreported for up to three weeks.
With MPs muttering in dismay, the minister pinpointed sheep "criss-crossing the country in hundreds of separate movements". Tracking sheep movements had proved difficult, if not impossible.
As Tory MPs repeated claims that the disease had emerged before the first reported case on February 19, Mr Brown derided "urban myths" about the outbreak, including reports that ministry officials knew about the disease earlier but concealed it.
Mr Brown was attacked by his Tory shadow, Tim Yeo, for failing to act promptly enough to halt the spread of the disease - 693 confirmed cases by last night, including 44 yesterday, with only 423,000 of the 719,000 animals authorised for slaughter killed so far.
That drew Tory taunts that at the current slaughter rate of 31,000 a day, it will take more than a week to clear the backlog alone.
Mr Brown said the slaughter delay was mainly in Cumbria. "I believe that our policy of containment of the disease is the right one and that the massive logistical exercise required to implement it is being reinforced. The measures we have announced today will ensure we learn the lessons and minimise the risks of such a tragedy in the future."
Mr Brown revealed that the government had set aside a further £200m for sheep farmers who were applying for their animals to be slaughtered as part of the welfare scheme. Hundreds of sheep are lambing on the fells but cannot be moved because of restrictions. Farmers will get 90% of pre-foot and mouth prices.
Officials later said that vaccinated animals, killed to slow the spread and create "firewalls", need not be slaughtered, but that could delay restoration of the country's disease-free status from three months to 12. Officials say the overall cost of vaccination would be £5 a shot.
In the high court yesterday, Peter Kindersley, the publishing entrepreneur who is also a farmer, asked for a judicial review of the government's slaughter policy for healthy animals, claiming it was illegal.
In Northern Ireland, where there has been only a single case of foot and mouth, farmers were given the go-ahead to export dairy and meat products from most of the country to the EU next month, provided there are no further outbreaks.
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26.03.2001: Web of fear widens as cities are declared infected zones
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From the Guardian archive
28.11.1967, leader: indecision on foot and mouth
18.11.1967: 'Slaughter must seem a cruel remedy'
16.11.1967: Foot and mouth may cost agriculture more than £12m
11.11.1967: Emigrant flights to Australia stopped by foot and mouth
01.11.1967: It is cheaper to kill than to prevent cattle disease
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