SEVERE precautionary steps to wipe out foot and mouth are hitting livestock owners in the area large and small, from one farm with 4,600 sheep to a home with just two goats.

Sheep, cattle and goats have been slaughtered across the region at farms and property where there has been contact with neighbouring infected premises.

At Common Farm in Kempsey, 4,600 sheep had to be slaughtered this week after MAFF investigations showed there had been dangerous contact with a nearby farm.

At Ryalls Court in Upton, farmer Peter Surman, who had a herd of 65 cattle close to an outbreak at Besford, was told they had to be slaughtered. At Avenbury, near Bromyard, 140 sheep were ear-marked for slaughter at Little Froome Farm, where foot and mouth disease was suspected.

Forty-five sheep were culled at The Scarr, near Redmarley.

Sheep breeder Eric Kneen lost five pedigree Gotland sheep which he had for "quite a while, for breeding purposes".

The other 40 sheep belonged to a farmer who had rented grazing land off Mr Kneen.

Mr Kneen said the farmer had been in contact with a farm at Tewkesbury, where shortly afterwards a foot and mouth outbreak had been confirmed.

Farmers are not the only people losing their animals. At Sunnyview Bungalow in Orcop, Herefordshire, two goats were culled.

A MAFF spokesman said animals at farms and properties that have been named as dangerous contact premises have to be culled within 48 hours.

"That's not as fast as infected premises but the important thing is that you don't get an infected area around a dangerous contact farm, and you can't be a dangerous contact of a dangerous contact," he said.

"Slaughtering animals at dangerous contact farms is precautionary culling. We're not saying these farms have got foot and mouth, and in fact in most cases we hope they haven't, but it's better to be safe than sorry. "It's awful for the farmers involved. We appreciate how heartbreaking it is, but it's a matter of us all pulling together if we're to get ahead."

So far 1,235 cases of foot and mouth have been confirmed across the country with 38 cases in Herefordshire, 24 in Worcestershire and 71 in Gloucestershire.