TASK forces should be set up ready to deal with any future animal disease outbreaks - and they should also be charged with identifying local burial sites, preferably on individual farms or small groups of holdings, for the disposal of slaughtered livestock.

The call was made by Mr James Jackson of the Duke of Northumberland's Alnwick Castle estates at a conference on Tuesday.

The Duke's father had chaired the committee which drew up recommendations following the 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak and a key recommendations then was for culled stock to be buried on farm, rather than cremated.

"Digging a hole takes one-sixth the time it takes to build a pyre," said Mr Jackson, "There was also the risk that the virus might be carried on thermal currents if the temperature of the pyre was not right. Three outbreaks in Derbyshire in 1967 were thought to have been caused by this."

Mr Jackson, and Mr Rory Wilson, from the Northumberland estates, addressed the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors North-East conference at Matfen Hall, close to where the current crisis is believed to have started.

Mr Jackson said much of the report into the 1967 outbreak was still relevant: "But it seems government officials did not read it."

The report said carcasses should be buried on farm. Ring vaccination was also recommended where appropriate.

Mr Jackson said the government must identify where the current outbreak came from and put plans in place to stop it ever happening again.

He called for the formation of task forces of local vets, Defra officials, farmers, landowners and army personnel.

The government should draw up action plans to combat future disease outbreaks, plans the task forces would regularly rehearse.

Mr Jackson and Mr Wilson spoke of the estate's experiences during the present foot-and-mouth crisis.

It had lost £500,000 in revenue as a result of the crisis. Apart from losses caused by livestock problems and restrictions, many events had been cancelled; there were problems with tree felling; field sports were disrupted and extra costs were caused by bio-security and cleaning.

Surprisingly, holiday lets and visitors to the castle were up on the previous year.

The estate runs to 125,000 acres, mostly in Northumberland, with some in Scotland and Surrey. In addition to 170 let holdings, three in-hand upland farms and a 5,000-acre in-hand arable farm, there is forestry, a saw mill, business and retail interests.

Mr Jackson said the main criticism had been the lack of decision-making by ministry officials.

When disease struck at Heddon, the estate immediately introduced tight bio-security measures. It received a call from MAFF to say it was within 3km of an outbreak but could not be told where it was "for reasons of confidentiality".

Even though the site was identified on the news, it was ten days before the ministry officially told the estate where it was, and then the neighbouring estate farm they identified was an arable unit 6km from the disease.

However, ten let holdings on the estate did have all or part of their stock culled and ministry confusion caused distress.

"One farmer with a young family had a call at 5pm from MAFF and was told his stock would be culled," said Mr Jackson. "At 6.30 he was told it was a mistake and his stock was safe. The next day at 10am they called to say stock would be culled and within the hour the army arrived and slaughtered it.

"This farmer did his own cleaning to ministry requirements and was then told some would have to be done again because it was not good enough - yet they had supervised everything."

Another tenant was told on four separate occasions that his stock would be culled. They were finally culled after a fifth call - eight days after the disease had been confirmed on a neighbouring farm. He had given MAFF maps of his holding on 15 separate occasions.

Mr Jackson said there appeared to have been no clear policy so local officials had to contact London continually, allowing time for disease to spread.

Mr Wilson told the conference rural groups must speak with one voice for more effective lobbying.

He called for a sponsored retirement scheme for farmers. "This is a must," he said. "We have talked about it for four years but nothing has happened. The government did it for the miners, now they must do it for farmers."

A tax break, if only for a limited time, should be given on all industrial and energy crops to encourage their development.

Estates should no longer be taxed as investments but treated as businesses.

Mr Wilson suggested some redundant farm holdings could become brownfield sites for housing to make villages viable.

A firm believer in market towns, he also suggested each should have a 50-acre enterprise zone identified to attract businesses