The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, yesterday insisted there was never any serious alternative to the policy of slaughtering livestock to eradicate foot-and-mouth.
A week after ministers responded to farmers' concerns about the cull of animals on farms close to infected areas by giving vets greater discretion in implementing the slaughter policy, Mr Blair said the majority of animals killed were sheep, and vaccination was "never a practical option there".
At the London Press Club, Mr Blair said that as Britain moved towards "the end of this ghastly business" less than four weeks' of normal food production had been interrupted by the slaughter policy.
"Each year we kill around 30 million livestock animals for food and 15 million chickens every week. A failure to slaughter out the infection would simply have blighted farming and food production for years," Mr Blair said.
As part of the government's plans to help the agriculture industry the local government minister, Ms Hilary Armstrong, announced that farmers would be offered rate relief on properties if they diversified into nonagricultural businesses.
Under the Rating (Former Agricultural Premises and Rural Shops) Bill, Ms Armstrong said, a five-year scheme to provide mandatory 50 per cent rate relief to small non-agricultural businesses would help reduce costs for farmers who wished to diversify.
If 5 per cent of farms took up the offer, the government believed that up to 7,000 businesses could benefit, creating savings of up to £2,600 for each property.
A Labour backbench MP, Mr Ben Bradshaw, said the government's efforts to help the tourist industry were "woefully inadequate" and insisted that unless businesses were offered interest free loans immediately they would close within months.
During a debate on tourism in the Commons, Mr Bradshaw told the Culture Secretary, Mr Chris Smith, that businesses specialising in tourism in places such as Dartmoor faced serious financial difficulties.
But Mr Smith said the tourism industry had received "substantial" aid packages and, while additional help was being considered, he insisted the industry would recover if visitors were encouraged to return to the countryside.
The Conservatives, who have joined the call for interest-free loans, described the government's policy toward the tourist industry as "complacent and shambolic since the outset".