Initial results of tests on a suspected new case of foot-and-mouth were negative, it was announced today.

Final results of the tests involving two sheep at a farm in North Yorkshire will not be known for 96 hours.

But the initial all-clear was good news for farmers who had feared a possible resurgence of the disease just weeks after the UK was given the all-clear.

A spokesman for Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "Initial results of the cases have come back negative. The final result will take about 96 hours."

Two animals from the same farm at Hawnby were tested after suspicious lesions were spotted.

Authorities were alerted yesterday morning by a vet who had carried out checks on sheep at the farm and discovered two animals with suspect lesions in their mouths - a sign of possible foot and mouth infection.

Samples were taken from the sheep for urgent testing at the Institute of Animal Health laboratory at Pirbright, Surrey.

If the cases had been confirmed, it would almost certainly have prompted a new cull of livestock in the area just as farmers were re-stocking after the last cull.

It could also have led to Britain losing its disease free status within the European Union.

The two suspect sheep were slaughtered as a precaution and livestock movements in a five-mile radius around the suspect farm were banned.

The sheep were examined yesterday as part of an inspection visit required by Defra when farms restock after foot-and-mouth.

The farm originally had 145 cattle and 2,010 sheep but these were all destroyed last August when a neighbouring farm contracted foot-and-mouth.

The farm was later cleaned and disinfected and under the restocking process it received a number of animals which would have been inspected on a regular basis.

The foot-and-mouth crisis which began at Burnside Farm, at Heddon-on-the-Wall Northumberland, in February last year, claimed the lives of about six million animals, cost farming more than £900 million and tourism a further £4.25 billion in England.

There were 2,030 confirmed cases of the disease in the UK and Northern Ireland and the last case was on September 30 last year.

This morning, officials from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were still turning vehicles away from the farm, believed to be Mount Pleasant Farm, and neighbouring St Agnes Farm owned by J Garbutt Farms.

Local people said the farmer involved was Robin Garbutt, a 48-year-old beef and sheep farmer, who had lived in the area all his life.