NEXT week's Malvern Autumn Show will go ahead despite the foot-and-mouth restrictions.

However, the two-day event will be without some of its usual animal attractions.

Mountain sheep, water buffaloes, angora goats and alpacas, destined for the show's popular World of Animals area, will no longer feature, and the Millers Ark section, where younger visitors can get up close and personal to a variety of animals, poultry and waterfowl, will be without the pigs, sheep and calves it usually brings.

This year's annual show, on Saturday, September 29 and Sunday 30, will take place as usual on the Three Counties Showground, near Malvern.

Thankfully the event organiser the Three Counties Agricultural Society is well-versed in the implications of foot and mouth, having been forced to cancel livestock competitions at its Three Counties Show in 2001 and 2002, following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

Following the latest outbreak the soceity will be seeking and acting on advice from DEFRA on any necessary controls.

Its press officer, Sharon Gilbert, said: "Obviously we are disappointed that some of the animals we would normally have here in September will be unable to come.

"But visitors will still be able to see donkeys, ponies, foals, ducks, geese, rabbits and guinea pigs in the Millers Ark area.

"They will also be able to see native pony breeds such as Connemara, Highland, New Forest, Fell, Exmoors and Shetlands, together with Spotted Ponies, heavy horses and all kinds of dogs from Siberian huskies and Leonbergers to Greyhounds, Lurchers and Newfoundlands."

Animals are just one of many attractions at the society's popular Michaelmas event, which attracts in the region of 60,000 visitors of all ages, each year.

Highlights include a Royal Horticultural Society flower show, edible gardens, a cookery theatre, country pursuits, pottery workshops and more than 650 outlets selling everything from jewellery and pictures to delicious food and wine.

There's also a huge harvest pavilion housing everything from potted plants to giant vegetables, together with displays of forgotten skills, a stick-making competition, vintage classic cars, motorcycles and caravans, and vintage machinery.

BLOB On the day admission is from £12.50 for adults and £5 for children aged five-15.