After the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic had been finally dealt with, it was said it was not a case of if the UK would ever have to suffer another outbreak of foot-and-mouth again, but when.

But to learn that the source of the current outbreak is likely to be traced back to the government facilities at Pirbright came as a shock.

However, this has happened before. A small well-contained outbreak in 1950 was traced back to Pirbright, which is recognised as one of the world's leading centres for foot-and-mouth disease research, with facilities for the production of vaccines used around the world.

A lot of hard lessons were learnt from the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak.

One of the basic problems in 2001 was that government officials had little knowledge of the way that the sheep industry operated.

They were evidently unaware of the huge numbers of sheep that are marketed at that time of year, some of which were destined to be exported.

Once the disease had been confirmed, the ministry immediately stopped exports, but did not put a blanket ban on all livestock movements.

The result was sheep in the early stages developing the disease were moving around the country, leaving a trail of disease in their wake.

As vet Peter Jinman explained: "foot-and-mouth is the most infectious of all animal diseases. The infected animals are virus factories and vaccination is not effective in animals already infected with the virus."

But last week, once the disease had been confirmed on the farm, a complete ban was immediately imposed on all cattle, sheep, goat and pig movements to minimise the risk of the disease spreading.

On Monday, Debbie Reynolds, Defra's chief vet, said that the ban on movements was likely to be imposed for 28 days after the last outbreak.

But with another outbreak discovered later that day, the question is how many more will there be?

Prior to the BSE debacle, the livestock industry was very export-oriented. France was an important market for British sheep meat and Italy took a large tonnage of high quality beef.

But with the advent of BSE, a universal export ban was put in place for all British exports of meat and livestock.

That was a severe blow for livestock farmers and it is only in the last year or so that the UK has been allowed to resume its exports.

In the intervening years, other countries have filled the gap. However, as a result of a lot of hard work by The Meat and Livestock Commission, industry representatives and meat traders, exports to the continent had begun again and were beginning to gather momentum.

As Elwyn Maddy, a well respected livestock farmer in the west of the county, said: "The outbreak has come as a blow to the livestock industry, especially just as we were regaining our traditional export markets.

"Just as the British livestock industry was beginning to pick itself up from the floor, the foot-and-mouth outbreak has slammed that door shut once again.

"It is a real kick in the teeth for livestock farmers, who were already facing enormous problems in the wake of the appalling weather, flooding and a shortage of winter feed stocks."

Defra helpline: 08459 33 55 77. Open from 6am to 10pm seven days a week for inquiries relating to foot-and-mouth.