FARMERS across North Yorkshire were yesterday holding their breath as foot-and-mouth was confirmed in two previously unaffected parts of the county.

Infected stock at holdings in Bellerby, near Leyburn, and Danby Wiske, near Northallerton, were slaughtered and animals at four adjacent farms were to be culled yesterday as a precaution.

Also killed were a further 1,000 sheep in the county which had contact with the Longtown mart in Cumbria.

Confirmation of the disease at Park Hill farm, Danby Wiske, on Tuesday, signalled immediate slaughter of Mr John Johnson's dairy herd. The operation was completed by 4.30 the following morning.

Mr Johnson's other herd of about 100 young cattle at High Moor, Streetlam, was deemed at risk and slaughtered by Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Peter Edmonds, of the National Farmers' Union, who spoke on behalf of Mr Johnson, said: "He is terribly upset. He doesn't know where this has come from. It has come out of the blue. You get up in the morning, feeling reasonably fine, and suddenly you are out of business."

Mr Edmonds feared further outbreaks were inevitable. "It could not have hit a worse area. We are surrounded by livestock farms at Brompton, East and West Rounton, and Ellerbeck. We are right in the thick of it; it is the worst case scenario."

A Maff spokeswoman confirmed four high risk sites near Park Hill had been identified and stock would be killed.

Livestock there included three pedigree dairy herds, totalling 750 cattle, which were yesterday being valued by an expert brought in from the West country.

Slaughtermen began work yesterday and the carcases would be burned on Mr Johnson's land, said the spokeswoman. "The army is on site and sorting out the logistics," she said.

A total of 750 sheep and 27 pigs on one of the neighbouring farms were also to be slaughtered and taken to Carlisle in sealed wagons. Pigs at Lazenby Hall, between Danby Wiske and Northallerton, were being valued yesterday and would be killed.

Heartbreak came on Wednesday for the Gregg family when foot-and-mouth was confirmed at their South View farm at Bellerby, near Leyburn - about 15 miles from the outbreaks in upper Wensleydale.

Their 70-strong beef suckler herd and 100 sheep were to be slaughtered yesterday, the cattle carcases burned on-site and the sheep buried in the giant pit dug at the disused Great Orton airfield in Cumbria.

A further 1,000 sheep in the county, which had contact with Longtown mart in Cumbria, one of the hubs of the disease, were also lined up for slaughter.

They included 800 at Husthwaite, near Easingwold, which would be buried at Great Orton. An epidemiologist was drafted in from Carlisle to assess further sites in the county where slaughter may have to take place.

Mr Bert Langthorne, who farms at Crawford Grange, Brompton, near Northallerton, is the local NFU link man and has had dozens of calls from worried neighbours.

He said: "Everybody is just devastated and disappointed that it has got this far. It is soul destroying. You feel as though you are just waiting for somebody to knock on your door to tell you it is your turn next."

l More reports: page 13.

The outbreaks at Danby Wiske and Bellerby bring the number of confirmed cases in North Yorkshire to six.