'We're hoping it's a false alarm'

The almost palpable fear that had hung heavy over the North Yorkshire farming community lifted today after preliminary testing for foot-and-mouth proved negative.

Farmers and businesses reliant on tourism have a four-day reprieve until the results of final tests on two sheep from a farm in Hawnby in North Yorkshire are announced.

Farmer Trevor Bosomworth, from nearby Thirsk, was one of thousands waiting for the phone call this morning that could have forced a repeat of the foot-and-mouth restrictions which forced him to cull 8,000 pigs and 400 cows as a precautionary measure last August.

The 31-year-old father-of two, whose 2,500-acre farm borders the five-kilometre exclusion zone enforced by Defra, said: "The news is all we really hoped for. While we cannot be sure it is certainly a step in the right direction.

"I really cannot bring myself to speculate what will happen if the tests prove positive in a few days' time. We are all just hoping it is going to go away. It has been a hell of a year for everybody and we thought things could only have got better; they couldn't get much worse."

Farmer Kevin Littleboy said: "I'm hopeful it is a false alarm and I'm not surprised by the scare. After the devastation of last year everybody is on red alert. Anything that is suspicious is being treated with extreme caution. We all keep our fingers crossed."