TENSIONS are again running high among Wharfedale's farming community as it awaits the results of foot and mouth tests on sheep in North Yorkshire.

A vet carrying out routine checks on sheep on the farm at Hawnby, near Helmsley, found suspect lesions on the mouths of two animals on Tuesday.

Foot and mouth disease tests were taken, and although preliminary results have so far proved negative, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) says the results will not be conclusive until this weekend.

The two sheep with the lesions have been slaughtered as a precaution, and an exclusion zone has been set up around the farm.

The farm's original flock was slaughtered during last year's foot and mouth crisis.

Four other North Yorkshire farms which supplied the sheep are also undergoing checks.

Tests on samples taken from the slaughtered sheep are currently being carried out at a laboratory in Pirbright. The last known confirmed case of the disease was detected on September 30 last year.

A director of Wharfedale Farmers Auction Mart and auctioneer, Ben Atkinson, claimed news of the suspected foot and mouth case had given farmers a 'sleepless night'.

He said: "We thought we'd got free of it all, and I'm sure a few farmers have had sleepless nights.

"We're only just beginning to get moving again, and the last thing we want is a hitch in that. We're still labouring under very severe restrictions, and this news has shaken a lot of people."

He said it was too early to say whether the operations of the auction mart - which only re-opened last Friday - would be affected, although DEFRA restrictions in the Hawnby area are already preventing farmers from moving their livestock.

"If the results are positive, it could shut up a big area. It would be an absolute bone-shaker," said Mr Atkinson.

He said fears of a new outbreak are affecting farmers all over the country, but especially farmers living around North Yorkshire.

A spokeswoman for DEFRA said on Wednesday: "We've got the first initial results, and they're negative. We're just waiting to see the later results."

She said that the early indications looked hopeful, but warned that all precautions must be taken until the final test results come through.

"We're just keeping our fingers crossed. I think that's the best way to describe it," she said.