Queen fears precious Jersey herd could be slaughtered

More than 2,000 pigs farmed on her estate in the heart of Windsor Great Park, which falls within Defra's six-mile surveillance zone, are also said to be at risk of being culled.

Sources close to the monarch told the Daily Mail yesterday that phone lines from Balmoral where she is still on holiday have been "red hot" in the last 24 hours.

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"The Queen is very angry that farm staff did not take action sooner to move her cattle to safety.

"She believes that more steps to protect them should have been taken and has made her feelings known to her farm manager."

The Queen is said to be particularly concerned about the animals on her 500-acre dairy farm.

It was founded by Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert and has two herds, one Jersey and the other Ayrshire.

The Jersey herd is the oldest of its kind in the country and some of the cattle can be traced back to the

Prince Consort's first cow, Pretty Polly, who arrived on the farm in 1871.

The Royal Dairy was originally set up in 1858 to provide the castle household with milk, cream and butter and sells produce including yoghurt, clotted cream and icecream through the Windsor Farm Shop and other local outlets.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said last night that the shop, which was set up by Prince Philip, would remain open despite the rest of Windsor Great Park being shut to the public.

However, he refused to confirm whether milk and other dairy products were still being made on the royal farms and whether the shop was continuing to stock them.

Defra's decision to restrict all livestock movements is another blow as the Queen was planning to sell her pedigree herd of Ayrshire cattle because of low milk prices.

The herd has grazed at Home Park on the Windsor Estate for 56 years since it was started by her father, George VI, and it comprises 175 adult and 160 young stock. There have been significant losses over several years with milk prices failing to cover the high cost of production.

The average price paid is 19p a litre but production costs at least 22p.

The Queen is also extremely concerned about 2,000 pigs kept on Norfolk Farm, one of the closest farms on her 2,000 acre estate to the origin of the latest scare in Egham, Surrey.

Pigs generate up to 1,000 times the quantity of foot and mouth virus that cattle or sheep do.

But a Defra spokesman insisted that the inclusion of Windsor Great Park in the six-mile surveillance zone did not mean it was inevitable the Queen's animals would have to be culled.

"There are many farms within that surveillance zone but animals will only be slaughtered if there are definite signs that foot and mouth has been found there," he said.

Windsor Great Park was owned by the monarchy but is managed by the Crown Estates, an independent organisation. The Queen rents more than 2,000 acres of the land.