The British government's decision to change its disposal strategy for foot-and-mouth confirmed and suspect cattle is the latest desperate attempt to arrest rising cases.
The Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, said cattle less than five years old could now be buried instead of burned after slaughter, a move that was welcomed yesterday by army officials as helpful in speeding disposal of carcasses. More than 940,000 animals have been earmarked for slaughter, with 353,000 waiting to be killed and 166,000 carcasses awaiting disposal.
Some cattle carcasses have not been buried up to three weeks after their slaughter, admitted Brig Alex Birtwistle at the Great Orton airfield slaughter and disposal site in Cumbria.
The new strategy would speed up his operation, and he hoped to bring the slaughter-to-disposal time to less than 24 hours within days - some 120,000 sheep have been buried at the airfield and 10,000 animals a day were being culled there.
Mr Brown said the move did not pose a risk of infection to the water-table or surrounding land. He also insisted there were grounds for optimism in the fight to control the disease.
But Tory campaigns chief Mr John Redwood criticised the government's handling of the crisis and accused ministers of withholding information. "It is up to the government to tell us honestly how bad the crisis now is," he told BBC1's On the Record. "We do not believe we have been getting the whole truth out of them."
Mr Blair was slow to bring in the army and had not acted decisively on the question of vaccination, Mr Redwood said. "He is facing the possibility of bankruptcies of a very large number of rural businesses so it is no good having Michael Meacher [the Environment Minister] on telly waving a couple of wellington boots around thinking they have done the job," he said.
A "tourism cabinet" has been set up to work out a foot-and-mouth recovery plan for the industry, it was announced yesterday. The cabinet, set up by the English Tourism Council (ETC), will update the government on the impact of the disease and oversee an advertising campaign to stimulate tourism.
Meanwhile, the number of cases of foot-and-mouth was approaching 900, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food said early last night - with expectations that the 1,000 mark would be exceeded some time tomorrow.
James Bond star Sir Sean Connery is to head a campaign to attract American tourists back to Scotland in the wake of mass cancellations of bookings due to foot-and-mouth.