Farmers take legal advice on FMD compensation

By David Evans

LONDON (Reuters) - The main farm union said on Wednesday it was taking legal advice on compensation over the foot-and-mouth (FMD) outbreak that has brought livestock trading to a standstill at a cost of millions of pounds a day.

Government investigators say there is a "strong probability" that the two foot-and-mouth cases discovered in southeast Britain came from a site housing two research laboratories located near the infected farms.

One laboratory is run by the government Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and the other, Merial Animal Health, is owned by U.S. firm Merck and France's Sanofi-Aventis.

"We are taking legal advice on behalf of our members, but it's too early to say what will happen," National Farmers' Union (NFU) spokesman Matt Davies told Reuters.

"There are still a lot questions to be answered about the source of the outbreak," he added.

Animals from both farms have been culled and 3 km exclusion zones and 10 km protection zones set up around the premises and the Pirbright research laboratories.

A government ban on the movement of all cattle, sheep and pigs throughout the country has been in force since the weekend -- leaving abattoirs and markets empty and farmers facing extra feeding bills for livestock they cannot send to slaughter.

Davies declined to say how much any compensation claim could amount to but the NFU estimates that export restrictions alone are costing farmers 1.8 million pounds a day.