The government regards Waugh's pig farm in Northumberland as the origin of the epidemic last year which led to the slaughter of millions of animals and cost the country more than eight billion pounds.

Waugh's pigs probably contracted the virus by being fed waste food containing contaminated meat, Britain's agriculture ministry said in a report published earlier this month.

At a May hearing Waugh had been found guilty of failing to notify the authorities of the foot-and-mouth outbreak and of causing unnecessary suffering to pigs.

"Failing to report foot and mouth, the most infectious disease known to man, has devastating consequences, as we have all witnessed," said Mick King, an official at Northumberland County Council, which brought the original charges.