THE foot and mouth scare is over.

The final all-clear was given on Sunday for a suspected case of foot and mouth disease at a farm in Ryedale.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced that no traces of the disease were found at St Agnes Farm, Hawnby, between Helmsley and Thirsk, which was at the centre of its investigations into a possible new case.

A relieved Robin Garbutt, who runs St Agnes Farm, said: "We are pleased to have finally had the official all-clear and can now continue to get back to normal. It has not been as bad for us as it has been for other people who didn't know the full facts."

Rob Simpson, regional spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said: "It is fantastic news. It lifts a cloud of fear from North Yorkshire. There's no doubt it has shaken up the farming community and reminded us of the nightmare of last year."

Animal health minister Elliot Morley said: "This episode underlines the need for farmers and vets to continue to be vigilant and to look out for any signs of the disease and to report any signs to DEFRA. The highest possible standards of biosecurity must be maintained at all times."

Government vets began investigating the case on Tuesday last week when lesions - one of the signs associated with foot and mouth - were found in the mouths of two sheep at the Hawnby farm.

The farm was in the process of restocking after its previous stock was culled following a "dangerous contact", rather than a case of the disease, at the height of the foot and mouth crisis. The two sheep in the latest incident were culled as a precaution and samples were taken from them and 150 other sheep on the farm.

By Thursday, initial tests had proved negative but it was only just after 1pm on Sunday when further tests were completed and the final all-clear was given.

DEFRA can now lift the ban on livestock movement in a five-mile radius of the farm. Separate restrictions on farms which supplied sheep to the farm will also be lifted and normal restocking procedures will now resume at the farm.

The news has been welcomed by the farming community, but Mr Simpson warned that it was likely there would be other similar incidents as farmers continued restocking and he urged calm.

"We are likely to get more of these scares in the coming months and everyone has to be on their guard and continue to treat this disease as if it is still lurking out there somewhere," he said.

Mr Garbutt said: "The situation we had here will certainly recur again in other places and people should not panic unnecessarily."

Coun Jim Bailey, meanwhile, has written to shadow agriculture and fisheries minister Ann Winterton to express his concern about the amount of publicity generated by the foot and mouth disease scare at Hawnby.

Coun Bailey, whose ward on Ryedale District Council includes Hawnby, told Mrs Winterton in the letter: "I am concerned that the handling of the situation has generated an unnecessary and damaging amount of publicity at a time when farming and other rural businesses have spent a year with very little cash flow and considerable disruption to their operations."

He added that he wanted to assure people living in the Hawnby area that the situation was not "deliberately over-publicised" to take media attention away from other "politically sensitive issues which the Government wished to conceal".

Malton's livestock market will be back in operation as of Friday, March 15. The market, like all others across the country, was wiped out by the foot and mouth crisis and since the all-clear, efforts have been underway to ensure that all biosecurity and other DEFRA conditions are in place. Details on page 6.

Updated: 11:42 Thursday, March 07, 2002