THE Government must learn from the "painful experience" of foot-and-mouth to ensure taxpayers do not bear the cost of a bird flu outbreak, MPs warned this week.

A report from the parliamentary public accounts committee said there was a "prodigious waste of taxpayers' money" involved in tackling the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001.

The committee welcomed efforts by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to improve its planning for a future outbreak. It insisted further action was still needed to keep down costs.

"What is entirely unacceptable is that, if another outbreak were to occur tomorrow, the taxpayer would end up shouldering the bill once again," said committee chairman Edward Leigh." Defra must not delay in taking forward proposals to transfer part or all of the cost of future disease outbreaks to the industry."

Foot-and-mouth in 2001 cost taxpayers about £2.7 billion - one of the most costly disease outbreaks ever recorded, with at least six million animals slaughtered.