THE Malvern-based director of the National Sheep Association has called on the Government to help his industry by axing movement restrictions in the light of a report on the foot and mouth crisis.

Dr Iain Anderson's Lessons to be Learned report into last year's outbreak, which was released on Monday, concludes that Britain was "not prepared" to deal with the outbreak and makes 80 recommendations on a strategy to combat future animal health outbreaks.

But John Thorley says a recommendation to keep in place a 20 day standstill rule restricting livestock movement pending a detailed risk assessment and cost analysis will hit the sheep industry.

He said most of the trading for livestock and breeding stock in the industry is done in September and October and is decided by forage growth and the breeding cycle, so a 20 day rule deeply affected the ability to trade.

"The movement restrictions should be removed as quickly as possible because we cannot continue to operate with the sort of restrictions put in place," he said.

Mr Thorley pointed to adequate regulations put in place by the industry and the NFU and a cost benefits analysis that it had undertaken.

"While we have the disease we can understand the restrictions and we are happy to go along with it but when the disease is not here to put the ind-ustry in a straitjacket is totally unacceptable," he added.

He also warned the Govern-ment could face a serious revolt if the issue was unaddressed.

Anderson's report, to which the association helped by giving evidence at the inquiry, was received in general by Mr Thorley as "providing a degree of usefulness", but that depended on its interpretation by the Government.