The British Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, conceded yesterday that officials were not meeting report-to-slaughter targets to eradicate the foot-and-mouth epidemic.
According to figures issued by the Ministry of Agriculture the target of slaughtering animals on infected farms within 24 hours is being met in about 60 per cent of cases. But the slaughter of animals on neighbouring premises within 48 hours is proving more difficult to achieve.
Even though official figures show the rate of new cases is beginning to fall, with an average of 32 each day for the week ending April 8th compared with 43 the previous week, the backlog of animals awaiting slaughter has now reached 541,000.
Mr Brown said officials were not meeting the 48-hour target because of the large number of animals involved.
Signalling the government had not ruled out a limited vaccination scheme, the Minister said he was "attracted" to a policy that could save valuable cattle, but he warned that vaccination was not a way of defeating the disease once it had occurred.
Earlier, a team of scientists from the Imperial College School of Medicine had argued that up to a third of British farms could be infected with foot-and-mouth unless the preemptive cull of healthy animals was stepped up.
One of the researchers, Dr Neil Ferguson, said slaughtering animals on holdings within 1.5 km of an outbreak would protect many more farms.
However, Dr Ferguson said recent figures suggested Britain was "past the peak" of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.