A FUTURE foot-and-mouth epidemic could spread across the country just as quickly as the previous outbreak despite Government efforts to enforce biosecurity, says a report out today.

Researchers at Newcastle University say urgent changes need to be made to the domestic fat lamb supply chain after finding that a large number of animal transfers go unrecorded.

It means thousands of fat lambs - young sheep which are being fattened for slaughter - could be lost in the system as they pass from farmers to auctioneers, livestock dealers, abattoirs and shops across the country.

The research also reveals that it is not clear who is responsible for the stages of movement in the chain, further fuelling fears that a future epidemic would spread as rapidly as the crisis in 2001.

The report is calling for sheep movement to be restricted, possibly by locating abattoirs and marts closer to one another, and for there to be sheep passports and tagging systems, along with a complete reassessment of the fat lamb chain.

Dr Michael Bourlakis, of Newcastle University's Centre for Rural Economy, which interviewed 23 members of the supply chain dealing in fat lambs, described the mechanisms and practices as poor.

"A lot of lambs are being transported from the North to the South because the abattoirs are bigger in the South," he said.

"It is very common, and there is a need to control this area by having auction houses and abattoirs closer together in the North-East."

He said the recommendations would lead to a shorter fat lamb chain.

The Government has come in for criticism over its handling of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, and a National Audit Office report last June said urgent action needed to be taken to produce contingency plans.

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the Government was considering imposing a distance limit of 150km on the movement of animals through markets.

He said a six-day whole-farm standstill would come into effect, from March 4, after animal transfers, along with introducing identification of individual sheep and goats from February 1, which would make it easier to trace stock.

The Government would be working with the EU on plans to record details of sheep and goats, he added