Britain's foot-and-mouth crisis widened and deepened last night with a total of 18 cases confirmed, including the first so far at an abattoir in Wales.
As the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, chaired emergency talks at 10 Downing Street, the Welsh Rural Affairs Minister, Mr Carwyn Jones, told the Welsh Assembly the Anglesey outbreak represented "a real emergency".
He said investigations were also under way in three other areas of Wales. "It is extremely serious, and we will need to work very hard to rectify the situation when the disease is brought under control," he said.
Yesterday afternoon local authorities were given statutory powers to close footpaths around farms; much of rural Britain was effectively closing down as the "nightmare scenario" for the livestock industry unfolded almost hour by hour.
After talks with food industry and farmers' leaders, ministers announced an immediate extension of the ban on the movement of livestock for a further two weeks.
They also explored the possibility of licensing the movement of unaffected animals under tight conditions to abattoirs. Although there was no evidence of panic buying, demand for meat products was rising yesterday, with many small traders facing the prospect of early closure.
After the Downing Street talks it was confirmed that the government's top priority was containment and extermination of the disease while maintaining the food supply.
The question of compensation was moving high up the political agenda, as the worsening crisis all but closed off the possibility of an April general election and even cast doubt on Mr Blair's options for early May.
With the budget due next Wednesday, ministers are acutely aware that "rural alienation" was already set to play as an election issue.
With pyres still burning at Heddon in Northumberland, farmers in Devon were also preparing for scenes of mass destruction. Up to last night some 7,000 animals had been slaughtered or were about to be.
Racing was cancelled for a week as British attractions continued to close and the Exmoor and Dartmoor National Parks turned into no-go zones. News of the spread of the disease to Wales was immediately followed by the closure of the Snowdonia National Park.
The cancellation of Saturday's Six Nations rugby match between Wales and Ireland heightened speculation that the Cheltenham Festival might fall victim to the crisis. The Prince of Wales cancelled a visit to rural Northumberland next week, saying it was "critically important" to keep movement to the countryside to the minimum.
The outbreak at Anglesey was said to involve an animal from Yorkshire. Farms at Withnell in Lancashire, Wolsingham in Durham and Wooton in Northamptonshire were also confirmed to have the disease, with diseased animals being traced respectively to Hexham in Northumberland, Darlington markets and a farm in Devon. The 17th case was confirmed at an abattoir in Durham.