PEOPLE in rural areas of County Durham breathed a sigh of relief last night after it was confirmed that the nightmare of foot-and-mouth had not returned.

But it was revealed that the Army was on standby to help the mass slaughter of beasts infected with the disease in Northumberland.

Farmers and country people, near Hamsterley Forest - an area at the centre of the outbreak in spring - had feared the worst after the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said a sheep had tested positive.

However, further tests showed the positive result was a mistake and the disease was still restricted to the area around Allendale, in North-umberland.

There was some slight relief for farmers in the Allendale area yesterday when Defra confirmed that no new cases had been reported in the previous 36 hours.

But the seriousness of the situation was highlighted when the regional operations director of Defra, John Bradbury, revealed the Army may have to be called in.

Hard-pressed vets and slaughtermen have been stretched in their grim task of killing more than 1,000 of cattle and 6,400 sheep.

Mr Bradbury said: "We are a lot better prepared this time.

"In particular we have the Army if I decided I need them."

He said that it would take at least three weeks with no new cases before the crisis would be considered to be improving. It emerged that a North- umberland farmer working for a Government inquiry into the disease may have unwittingly spread foot-and-mouth to Scotland.

John Horncastle, whose own animals have been cull-ed, was working for the man chosen by Tony Blair to draw up a blueprint on the future of farming, Sir Don Curry, when he visited seven farms. Defra were testing the farms on the Scottish borders last night.

Meanwhile, with the Army poised to go in, there were fresh calls for vaccination against the disease amid fears that the public could not stomach another mass cull.

The Government's countryside advisor, Ewen Cameron, predicted mass slaughter would not be tolerated in future. Mr Cameron made his call for vaccination at the launch a new report into the epidemic, which estimated its cost to the economy at £4bn.

Read more about foot-and-mouth here.