EU decision due on meat ban

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UK deputy chief vet Fred Landeg will brief counterparts from the 26 other member states on the latest developments in preventing the spread of the disease.

And they were to be urged to accept the situation had improved sufficiently to start to lift the restrictions amid fears farmers could start losing contracts if they continued.

The EU's standing committee on the food chain and animal health unanimously agreed the ban at the height of the crisis, saying it should stay in place until at least Saturday.

Farmers will not be able to begin exporting to the EU again until September 8 at the earliest, the soonest possible date for the removal of the surveillance zone.

But with the first domestic moves towards returning to disease-free status expected as early as Friday, Tory MEP Neil Parish said: "Things are beginning to move again in our countryside, but now it is time to step it up a gear."

Mr Parish, a former Somerset dairy farmer who chairs the European Parliament's agriculture committee, went on: "Swift action has thankfully meant this outbreak has been contained so it is vital we do not delay in getting low-risk meat and meat products back on shelves across Europe.

"Any further delays in lifting the export ban will jeopardise farmers' contracts on the continent.

"Consumers around the world know that British produce is of the highest quality; that's why our farmers have been gaining significant ground in export markets recently. The sooner we can get back to business as usual, the better."

The ban covers British cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, as well as products made from them, although those produced before July 15 are acceptable as well as heat-treated products and those made in Britain from imported animals.