GOVERNMENT officials were last night struggling to bring the latest foot-and-mouth outbreak under control as cattle culled on a second farm tested positive for the disease.

The farm, near Egham, Surrey, where animals thought to be infected were slaughtered on Thursday on suspicion of infection, is next to another farm where the disease was found.

The latest case comes after tests indicated the virus strain is the same as the one that infected two herds last month.

The second cull of animals took place on Thursday at Stroude Farm, owned by Ernest Ward. Mr Ward's son, Steven, confirmed that 800 pigs and 40 cattle were culled at the farm.

It comes after a herd belonging to Robert Lawrence, who owns Hardwick Park Farm, was infected while on grazing land attached to nearby Milton Park Farm. Scientists are still trying to establish whether the disease has spread through animals, vehicle movements or environmental contamination.

Yesterday, farming leaders met the Prime Minister to discuss the situation, amid concerns the industry was losing nearly £10m a day because of restrictions imposed to control the disease.

After the meeting, they said the new cases were a "disaster" for the industry, but acknowledged the need to control and eradicate the outbreak.

After relaxation of the rules in Scotland and Wales to allow animals to be taken directly to slaughter, the National Farmers' Union also said it was hoping farmers in some of England would soon be able to follow suit.

Nick Brown, the minister for the North-East, was pressed at a meeting of the North-East Economic Forum by farmer John Littlefair, from Hart Village, Hartlepool, to have the region exempted from the foot-and-mouth restrictions.

Mr Littlefair, questioning Mr Brown at the meeting at Middlesbrough FC's Riverside stadium yesterday, said: "We are so far from Surrey we should be given special status, like Scotland and Wales."

Mr Brown, who was Agriculture Minister during the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, said: "It depends on the professional advice of the chief vet, Debbie Reynolds. There is no easy way through this, but to stick very closely to that professional advice."