Farmer are in fear for their livelihoods as the spectre of foot-and-mouth disease looms over

Sussex.

The sky above the tiny village of Rusper, near Horsham, was filled with smoke as one of the rural community's farmers saw his entire flock of sheep destroyed.

Vets and representatives from the Government's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) dug a huge trench at Curtis Farm and lined it with straw and railway sleepers before setting fire to carcasses of sheep already humanely killed.

The action, on Wednesday, was a precautionary measure by Maff because the flock may have come into contact with the disease at a market place elsewhere in the country.

Yesterday, a second pyre of sheep was built and set alight by ministry representatives at Smallfield, near Horley, on the Surrey/Sussex border, again a precautionary measure because they may have been at markets affected by the disease.

Although Maff stressed Sussex still had no confirmed foot-and-mouth cases, the National Farmers' Union (NFU) is pleading with people to keep barriers up to prevent the disease from spreading into the county.

Joanne Barber, assistant group secretary of the NFU Lewes branch, said: "We need to keep this area a restricted area because we have done so well to keep it out so far.

"There has been talk of places reopening and people being urged to go into the countryside but we don't want people to do that."

Annie Payne, secretary of the NFU Mid Sussex group, said: "Precautions are being carried out to a high standard and we have to try to minimise the risk.

"We have to remain cautious and we should all be thankful that the public are keeping away from the farmland. There are livelihoods and livestock at stake."

A Maff spokesman said he was unable to confirm whether its vets were investigating any further farms in the region for links with infected animals.

Sir John Blaker, who has several hundred sheep on land in East Chiltington, near Lewes, said: "We haven't got it and we don't want it. One minute they're telling people to stay out of the countryside and then saying they can go into the countryside. No one wants it here."

Michael Fordham, chairman of the NFU East Sussex branch, said representatives from his area had urged Maff to slaughter animals which may have had contact with affected flocks or markets from other areas.

He said: "We were appealing to the Government to slaughter animals rather than wait for an outbreak to occur. While they were prepared to slaughter animals up country, we were pressing for these animals to be slaughtered straight away down here and the ministry decided to do this and we applaud them for this action."