A farmer facing charges relating to pigs on a farm at the centre of the foot-and-mouth outbreak has described his herd as "any old rubbish".

Bobby Waugh is accused of 16 charges ranging from failing to report his animals had developed foot-and-mouth disease to alleged animal cruelty.

But he told the court on Wednesday that he knew the procedure for reporting notifiable diseases as his herd had suffered swine fever in 1975.

Mr Waugh, 56, from St Luke's Road, Pallion, Sunderland, said when his animals were struck with the fever he had been compensated.

Pigs 'depressed'

He told South East Northumberland magistrates that he would buy pigs from Yorkshire up to the Scottish borders - often sows which were no longer fit for breeding - and were often of mixed breed.

Mr Waugh said: "Mine were any old rubbish to fatten, that's all I wanted."

In a video shown to the court previously, some of the pigs were seen huddled together, and one vet had told the court they looked "extremely depressed".

Mr Waugh explained that pigs were susceptible to the cold and it was particularly chilly last February.

Cutlery hoard

He said: "At that time of year it is cold but the witnesses said they didn't feel it. The pigs weren't dressed though, the pigs didn't have coats on."

He also described how he routinely picked cutlery from the out-of-date sandwiches, pies, pastries and catering waste fed to his animals.

And he insisted the waste was subjected to heat treatment before it was fed to 527 pigs at his fattening unit in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland.

Mr Waugh denies five counts of failing to notify officials of a foot-and-mouth outbreak and four charges of cruelty to animals.

He also pleaded not guilty to four charges of failing to dispose of animal by-products; one of feeding unprocessed waste to pigs; a charge of taking unprocessed waste to premises where pigs are kept and a charge of failing to record the movement of pigs.

The case against Mr Waugh's brother, Ronald, 60, who also ran the farm, has been adjourned indefinitely due to his ill-health.