CATTLE classified as dangerous contacts following an outbreak of foot and mouth at Bondleigh will not be culled after all, a spokesperson from DEFRA confirmed this week.

Farmers Ken Bragg and Edward Knapman appealed against the department's decision to cull their dairy herds after blood tests on Tom Dennis' Clapperdown Farm came back positive.

The outbreak at Clapperdown Farm, formerly classified as a dangerous contact premises, brings the total number of foot and mouth cases in Devon to 173.

Two hundred pigs and 1,021 sheep were slaughtered and taken to a rendering plant.

Mr Knapman said he had taken all the precautions and his cattle were located quite some distance away from the sheep on the outbreak farm.

Blood tests carried out on adjacent farms on June 8 came back negative.

'DEFRA still want to cull our two pet pigs which we have agreed to to save the cattle,' said Mr Knapman, who has built up his herd of 250 over a 13-year period.

The farmer said it was a relief to know he had won his appeal.

'Just when I thought we were out of the woods foot and mouth appeared again,' he said.

'But there are not many farms left around me now with animals on so unless we get something ourselves the chances of us going contiguous now are getting less and less.'

Farmer Ken Bragg said he had appealed against the decision to cull his dairy herd because the sheep at Clapperdown farm had not been grazing next to his animals for a long time, and vets had confirmed there was no reason to slaughter them.

Clapperdown Farm was classified as a dangerous contact because a farm worker had been to Willie Cleave's holding in Highampton two days before an outbreak was confirmed at his premises in February.

The animals were found to be carrying antibodies but blood tests later revealed 80 per cent of the animals had developed the disease.

A spokeswoman for DEFRA said there were six contiguous premises to Clapperdown Farm but only susceptible animals would be culled.

'It is a case by case assessment and the two cattle farms have been spared in this instance,' she said.

She confirmed there were no intentions to use the Ash Moor burial pit near Petrockstowe as all the animals slaughtered were being taken to a rendering plant.

A total of 389,551 animals have been slaughtered and disposed of to date in the foot and mouth crisis in Devon.

Foot and mouth restrictions have now been lifted throughout the Tavistock area.