You are going to get hotspots. You could end up with farmers facing a double whammy. The campaigners also point out that the foot and mouth fires last for many days, unlike bonfires of just one evening. In 1991 milk from farms near an incinerator at Bolsover in Derbyshire had to be thrown away because it contained an excess of dioxins. Dioxins form at high temperatures in the presence of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine.
Pyres contain chlorine because they are built with creosote-soaked railway sleepers and tyres.
The dead cattle and sheep contain hydrogen and carbon compounds, and the fires are started with hydrocarbon fuels such as kerosene. Fears that foot and mouth has infected wild deer were raised yesterday after a vet claimed to have identified the symptoms in a roe deer carcass. The finding could undermine the government's isolate and slaughter' policy as experts believe it is a practical impossibility to cull deer since panicked wild animals would scatter. Tests are being carried out on a deer carcass which was found at a farm near Penrith in Cumbria last week. Maff said it had no confirmation of any wild deer being infected with foot and mouth.