By Jeremy Cooke Rural affairs correspondent, BBC News

With summer finally here in many parts of the UK, the countryside looks peaceful and idyllic. But make no mistake, our rural communities now fear they are on the brink of yet another major crisis.

This market would usually have sold 10,000 sheep

The foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey has not triggered panic. But across the country farmers are anxious. They don't need to be told what's at stake.

The epidemic in 2001 saw millions of animals slaughtered and burned at a cost of some �8bn.

During the past three days, I've spoken to several farmers in and around the government's "protection zone" which centres on the farm where the outbreak happened.

Most have told me that they support the decision to impose an immediate ban on the movement of cattle, sheep, pigs and goats in a bid to prevent this outbreak developing into a new epidemic.

But there's growing concern, and even anger that the laboratories here, which are supposed to form part of the country's defence against diseases like foot-and-mouth, have emerged as prime suspects in the search for the source of this outbreak.

It's the livestock movement restrictions which are causing the most pain

But above all else livestock farmers are listening intently for news of any new outbreaks of the disease, perhaps in other parts of the country.

If that were to happen it would signal a serious deepening of this potential crisis. The good news is that, so far at least, that has not happened.

Apart from that it's the government's livestock movement restrictions which are causing the most pain. Farmers may accept that they're necessary, but they do, in effect, shut down our livestock industry.

Markets closed

That means, for instance, that markets across the country are closed down.

And, of course, there's the EU ban on all British exports of fresh meat, live animals and dairy products. (It's worth remembering that the livestock export market is worth some �500m a year).

I visited a slaughterhouse in Farnborough, very near the outbreak zone. On a normal Monday it would "process" 400 sheep, 400 pigs and 50 cattle.

Now the place is silent and will lose thousands of pounds every day until the movement restrictions are lifted. The owner/manager told me that if things have not changed by the end of the week he'll have to ask his 35 staff to take "enforced holidays".