FARMERS in the Vale of York met their MP last week, to voice their concern about the way the foot-and-mouth crisis was being handled.

Miss Anne McIntosh met farmers, feed suppliers and others from the agricultural industry at Thirsk, when the main issues were controlling the disease and getting animals moving again.

Mr John Weighell, from Bedale, said: "What has been happening, if you look at the outbreaks in North Yorkshire, is that there has been an outbreak and then, in almost every case, 12 days later there have been one or two more.

"This means it hasn't been dealt with quickly or efficiently enough in the first place."

He added that more sense and reason was needed when deciding the boundaries of restricted areas.

"Putting Ripon into the restricted area after the outbreaks at Hawes was a crazy situation," he said.

Mr Alan Chamberlain from Allied Feeds said: "The French shut a village down and cordoned the whole place off. We're playing at it. We need someone to grip it and look at it as a total disaster for this country."

Miss McIntosh pointed out that fears that the smoke from funeral pyres could have helped spread the disease in some areas.

One farmer suggested that JCBs should start digging graves as the culling began, to avoid the situation in Hawes where carcases were left lying around for seven days before they were disposed of.

The meeting was split on whether vaccination should be used.

Mr Peter Almack pointed out that vaccinating could have an adverse affect on underwriting the cost of the crisis because, after inoculating the animals, they would not be worth as much.

Some said animals should not be vaccinated because it would cause problems with regaining the country's disease- free status, and could also lead to some animals becoming carriers of the disease.

Miss McIntosh said: "Vaccinating looks like a political solution to get the general election out of the way in June, removing the problem until October, delaying the disease, because to regain our disease-free status we would then have to cull."

Owners of rare breeds at the meeting felt that vaccinating could be a way of preserving their stock, but others said no animals should be vaccinated at all for fear of having two types of meat afterwards.

Miss McIntosh also pointed out that there was concern that vaccinating would make it difficult to tell which animals had foot-and-mouth and which had been inoculated.

However, one farmer pointed out that an American vaccination and testing kit could identify within ten minutes which animals had been vaccinated and which were infected. "Mass cull as it stands is getting us nowhere on its own. They're not going to get on top of it without taking some other measures," she said.

The illegal movement of animals was also discussed, as this is believed to be the cause of the spread of the disease to previously unaffected areas.

However, it was also pointed out that it was ridiculous to blame farmers when they were being given licences to move animals, as in the case of pigs legally taken from Sinderby to a feeding farm in Wales.

Concern about whether animals would be allowed out to pasture were also discussed, as well as animal welfare issues.

Miss McIntosh said the government's experts had told ministers that, in Scotland, farmers were being told they could not put cattle out to pasture and in England they were to be kept in as long as possible.

"There seems to be a lack of common sense among the highest level of officials," she said.

Some MPs who did not understand what the crisis was doing to the countryside were treating it as a joke, said Miss McIntosh, but she promised to take the views of those at the meeting back to the House of Commons.