The Chief Veterinary Officer has announced that the number of confirmed foot and mouth cases has risen from 12 to 16 - the latest are in Anglesey, Lancashire, County Durham and Northamptonshire.

As the sense of crisis continues to grow and more and more farmers face the appalling prospect of destroying their stock, the Prime Minister has called an emergency meeting of ministers this afternoon.

While tests continue at more and more farms around the country, we are seeing more and more evidence of a rural shutdown.

Plans are under consideration to close all footpaths and rights of way near affected areas and there's the growing liklihood that sporting events, including horse racing, will be cancelled.

Risk: Horse racing has close links with the farming community

Wednesday's National Hunt meeting at Chepstow has been called off - and the Jockey Club is expected to announce the suspension of racing for a week.

Simon Claisse, the clerk of the course at Cheltenham, where one of the racing calendar's key events - the Gold Cup festival - is due to start next month, told the World at One he welcomed such preventative action.

Mass movement

But there are many other sporting activities which involve the movement of large numbers of people.

Around a million people watch and take part in football each weekend: and tens of thousands more in everything from Rugby to greyhound racing.

The Welsh Rugby Union has said that Saturday's clash between Wales and Ireland in Cardiff could be called off, because of the numbers of Irish fans travelling - and then returning to foot-and-mouth free Ireland.

But perhaps the most dramatic gesture has come from the sport known as the most popular in Britain.

The National Angling Alliance's Chris Poupard told the World at One that it was asking its million members to stay out of the countryside - the first such national action in the sport's history.

"We are asking our members, and indeed all anglers, to make sure they don't make any unnecessary visits to the countryside, and farmland in particular.

"We want to play a responsible role in assisting the Government to try and get this outbreak under control," he said.