THE foot-and-mouth virus continues to run out of control in the Appleby, Orton and Kirkby Stephen cluster with 16 new cases of the disease confirmed on farms in the area this week.

There are now more than 60 infected farms in the cluster which is known as the Penrith Spur.

Mike Sanderson, the Appleby NFU group secretary, said: "I cannot see any reason why it is going to stop now other that the fact that there is nothing left to get it."

This week alone, 1,533 cattle and 8,091 sheep were slaughtered on infected premises.

With contiguous premises and dangerous contacts, more than 250 farms in the area have now lost stock to the slaughterman and more than 150,000 animals have been killed.

Mr Sanderson said an outbreak close to Crosby Ravensworth Common and another on Nateby Common, near Klirkby Stephen, had major implications for thousands of sheep grazing on common land there.

He said the mood among farming families in the area was grim and the situation for farms that did survive the disease looked bleaker the longer the disease went on.

He said the Government must act to support farm produce prices to give farmers a future worth fighting for.

"We need some light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

Meanwhile, Cumbria County Council has been given permission to opt out of the Government's plans to lift blanket closures of footpaths and rights of way on July 20.

Cumbria was one of seven counties exempted from the measure because the disease is still active.

Council media manager Brian Hough told the Gazette: " The Government has accepted the fact that we are a special case and is happy that we do not have the blanket ban lifted."

No paths can be opened within 3km of infected premises and 45 per cent of North Cumbria comes under that classification, but Mr Hough said the council was working on proposals to begin lifting the ban in geographical areas instead of on a path-by-path basis where it was safe to do so and would be putting them to Government as soon as possible.

"The overall priority remains that of eradicating the disease because only then will we be able to get full re-opening," he said.

"The message we want to give is that Cumbria will be open apart from certain areas rather than Cumbria is closed apart from certain areas."

Chris Collier, the chief executive of Cumbria Tourist Board, said: "The exemption for footpaths is a worry."

"We cannot afford to have word get out that there are fewer paths open here than elsewhere."

She welcomed the council's approach to rolling back restrictions in some areas but said the Government ought to be doing more work to reassure farmers that it is not footpath openings or walkers that are spreading the disease.