Northallerton auction mart, one of the busiest in North Yorkshire, stands deserted and silent. Nothing like it has been seen since the last devastating outbreak of foot-and-mouth in 1967.

At a typical Tuesday fatstock sale about 300 cattle, 1,500 lambs and 200 pigs pass through the pens in the Applegarth. On Wednesdays, at store sales, there are about 250 cattle and up to 3,000 lambs, depending on the season.

Nothing will move in or out of the mart, however, until the ban on the movement of livestock is lifted, and no one yet knows when that will happen.

Mr Derek Tyson, livestock auctioneer with Northallerton Auctions, said: "We have had the overheads of running the mart with no income at all, but as things stand at the moment we are not complaining about that because we feel that our clients are in a far worse position than we are.

"There will be no lay-offs as such, because the market has sufficient reserves to carry staff, but the present situation has an impact on casual staff employed only on mart days, like drovers and secretarial staff.

"Everyone is hoping that someone can get a hold on this sooner rather than later, but we cannot see anything happening soon enough."

Mr Tyson added: "Lambs were making more money than last year on the strength of a strong export market to Europe. After the last confirmed case of foot-and-mouth has died out, there is a six-month period before any exports can be resumed.

"Under special circumstances this may be reduced to 42 days to some EU countries, but in any event that is going to be too late for the currency of hoggs.

"The beef trade was falling but held up better by far than the Continental trade."

Animal health experts have insisted that it has become easier for the disease to spread because so many smaller abattoirs have been closed and livestock travels greater distances to giant slaughterhouses.

Mr Tyson said: "There is no doubt, because of government and EU policy, that the dice are loaded in favour of larger abattoirs. In a situation like this it does exacerbate the spread of disease up and down the country with all stock travelling such long distances.

"Closure of many small abattoirs over the years by stealth has greatly reduced the number of independent abattoirs available, and this leads to a decrease in competition for stock and ultimately poorer prices for farmers."

Mr Tyson said that, on the advice of the Ministry of Agriculture, Northallerton Auctions had also cancelled all outside farm dispersal sales, even if they involved only machinery