Farmers in Britain have been told to wait a few more days for a clearer picture to emerge of how long the foot-and-mouth epidemic will continue its hold over the country.
The Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, also urged them yesterday to co-operate fully with the government's strategy for combating the virus. In the face of some resistance to the culling of healthy animals, he said he appreciated that this was difficult for farmers to accept but it was vital for the overall success of the disease control policy.
The number of confirmed cases had risen by 17 to 1,153, fuelling hopes that the daily number of new cases was slowly dropping. Mr Brown said there were "some encouraging signs" that the outbreak could be coming under control but it was "still too early to predict the future course of the epidemic".
In a statement updating MPs, Mr Brown said the epidemic had so far cost more than £500 million sterling in aid to stricken farms. Vaccination remained an option, he said, but "would be a major step to take, with significant consequences".
Earlier, he claimed that the next few days were likely to form a "clear trend" for how the crisis would progress. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I would expect by the end of this week for a clear trend to be discernable, but whichever way it is going let me make it absolutely clear that there can be no room for complacency."
A ministry spokesman said officials were still making it a priority to discover how cases had occurred over the weekend in three areas previously unaffected by the disease - Whitby in North Yorkshire, Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders and Caerphilly in south Wales.
Mr Ben Gill, president of the National Farmers' Union, emerging from a meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said early signs indicated that at least some of the new isolated cases might have been caused by "people moving from one area to another and inadvertently carrying the infection". The outbreaks were at least 40 km from the nearest previously confirmed cases.
Mr Brown said it was vital to contain outbreaks in previously unaffected areas. These have raised fears that the disease is spreading uncontrollably.