New measures to expand the foot-and-mouth slaughter programme in Britain have been revealed by Agriculture Minister Mr Nick Brown.
The new measures amount to slaughtering healthy animals, where a strong risk of infection exists, and could mean a death sentence for millions of animals.
The moves were accepted as "grim but necessary" by the National Farmers' Union, which warned they would leave large swathes of farmland effectively "dead".
NFU president Mr Ben Gill said: "There will be many tears around the British countryside today. Our farms should be starting to jump to life with new-born lambs and calves. Instead many will feel that spring has been cancelled and their farms are simply 'dead'."
So far 205,000 animals have been condemned and the number of outbreaks has risen to 240.
Providing other areas remained disease-free, Mr Brown said the Government hoped over the 10 days to relax restrictions in areas that still "remained clean".
The new slaughter programme includes culling all animals within three kilometre exclusion zones in Cumbria, which is an area of high infection.
It was not yet clear whether the cull would include wild animals, or whether the three kilometre-wide cull zones would apply to other high infection areas like Devon and Dumfries and Galloway.
Up to 100,000 sheep which may have come into contact with diseased animals through markets in Welshpool and Northampton, but have not yet developed the disease, will also be traced and killed.
In Devon, where foot-and-mouth had been spreading from farm to farm, vets and trained lay staff will carry out "intensive patrols" within the three kilometre zones of infected farms.
PA