As the palls of black, funereal smoke continue to drift across the land like sempahores of slaughter, Oxfordshire's livestock farmers continue to hold their collective breath - and pray.

So far, the county has escaped lightly - the case of foot and mouth at Clive Hawes' Little Chesterton farm and the subsequent cull of the same farmer's sheep at South Hinksey, which were confirmed as infected - are still the only blots on the Oxfordshire landscape.

Vet Dr George Watson, scrubbing up outside Grange Farm, Little Chesterton

But the mood among farmers is changing, swinging between despair and outright anger as they face another day of uncertainty and potential financial ruin.

At the local National Farmers' Union, calmness prevails and the message to the public remains the same.

"We just have the same old advice, I'm afraid," says spokesman Isabel Bretherton. "Avoid the countryside and woodland - there's a big threat to the deer population in Oxfordshire.

"People should stay at home and people who own horses should excercise them in the arena, rather than riding out. Farmers are becoming angry now with people who are still hacking out in the countryside.

"Farmers, understandably, are becoming very nervous now as the days go by. We are, after all, in a state of national emergency and it's predicted that it'll be 20 weeks before the outbreak is contained. For farmers, the outlook is bleak.

"The abbatoirs are charging more now for slaughter and the higher costs are being passed on to the farmer - and it's the bigger farmers who are being accommodated first. It's the livelihood of the traditional livestock farmer that's on the line now."

Under the current Government restrictions, any vet who has contact with an infected site is banned from visiting any other sites for a designated period.

In Oxfordshire, the burden of work caused by the outbreak is obviously nowhere near that of places like Devon or Cumbria, where the situation is desperate enough for retired vets to have returned to work to help cope with it all.

So far, it is understood that there have been no calls to use vets in private practice to combat the plague.

But as another day goes by, the livestock farmers of Oxfordshire can take no further measures to protect their animals. Everything that can be done has been done.

All that remains is to look forward - and pray that, at the end of the nightmare, there will still be some kind of future for the farmers of Oxfordshire.