MR Peter Luff, MP, does talk amazing nonsense, even for a politician.

MAFF, and other animal health enforcement agencies have admitted from the start of the foot-and-mouth outbreak that the chances of it being spread by ramblers following public footpaths across fields were so small as to be negligible.

The total closure of the footpath network throughout the country at the start of the outbreak was a panic measure by a MAFF horrified by the rapid spread of the disease.

This action was taken because (a) it was what they had always done and (b) the farmers expected it. The net result was the spread of the disease.

It is well known how foot-and-mouth disease spreads. It is mainly spread by direct contact with infected animals and sheep can spread the disease before they show the symptoms. It can also be spread from field to field by birds. Where you see sheep with lambs you will almost always see crows.

It will also travel from farm-to-farm in the dung sprayed up under the wheel arches of lorries which have driven through farmyards. You do not get rid of that infection simply by driving over a disinfectant mat or by a cursory spray from a disinfectant spray.

Yes, Mr Luff, the disease can come up the M5 from Devon, but under the wheel arches of a car or lorry, not on a rambler's boots. Perhaps a "cordon sanitaire" to prevent people leaving Devon or Yorkshire could be tried. It is just as logical as keeping the footpaths closed.

R F HAYCOCK, Malvern.