Farmers fear a red tape backlash in the wake of foot-and-mouth could plunge the industry into a new crisis.

Foot-and-mouth disease has not been seen in the North-East for more than two months, but the National Farmers' Union (NFU) anticipates it will continue to haunt the industry, as the government steps up paper work and bureaucracy for farmers.

The last case in the region was at Bolts Hope Farm in Blanchland, Northumberland on September 4 and last week the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reduced the status of Northumberland from High Risk to At Risk, allowing farmers in the area to move cattle and pigs to and from similarly classed areas.

Mick Hodgson, from South West Durham NFU, said while life appeared to be getting back to normal as farmers in some areas started to restock, there were others whose animals were culled in April and May who did not yet have their cleaning certificates.

Once a farm has been certified clean by inspectors following an outbreak, farmers must then wait four months before they can restock.

Mr Hodgson said: "The industry is never going to be back to normal.

"There will be more red tape and restrictions, so there will be lots and lots of repercussions."

One farmer who is determined to get his farm back on track is John Anderson, from Friarside Farm in Wolsingham, County Durham.

His cattle and sheep were culled on March 25 and now he has replaced most the stock.

He said: "I think most of the farms round here are clean now and most of them are restocking. We just decided more or less from the outset that we would restock as soon as possible."

Rob Simpson, National Farmers' Union press officer said many farmers would think again about replacing their lost livestock.

"There's very few farmers making money at the moment. All farmers are questioning whether they should be staying in the business, thinking about diversifying or getting out altogether."

He said for those staying in the business, the threatened increase in paperwork, such as proposed identification for individual sheep, would make it difficult to compete with foreign producers.

He said: "There's all this bureaucracy on farmers in this country, but not in foreign market. So farmers are being asked to produce products to a much higher standard for the same price as producers in other countries."