OPPOSITION MPs have condemned Gordon Brown's "audacity" in announcing plans to force farmers to pick up the bill for dealing with animal disease, with new legislation planned before the General Election.

Critics said the move will inflict further damage on the industry and drew comparisons with the treatment of the swine flu outbreak which is paid for by the Department of Health and not those struck down with the virus.

The Prime Minister has vowed to bring forward an Animal Health Responsibility and Cost Sharing Bill in the next session of Parliament, with the law on the statue book by next June.

Mr Brown wants to create "mechanisms and means of how responsibilities and costs can be shared between Government and the farming industry for animal disease control".

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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the "over-riding objective" of the plan is to "achieve better management of animal disease risks so that the overall risks and costs are reduced". Industry leaders will also be more heavily involved decision-making in return for putting in funding.

But Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron said the plans would recklessly heap more financial pressure on farmers.

"The Government wouldn't ask communities affected by swine flu to pay to cover the cost, so it's completely unfair that farmers are being forced to pick up the tab," he said.

"I'm amazed that Gordon Brown has the audacity to even suggest that livestock farmers should pay these increased costs, especially since the 2007 foot and mouth disease outbreak clearly came from a Government- licensed premises. Everyone in farming understands the need to protect public health, but in the current economic climate there can be no justification for shifting the cost to hard-pressed livestock farmers."

The National Farmers' Union is also opposed to the plans. Kevin Pearce, its head of food and farming, told a recent industry conference that the NFU remains "fundamentally opposed to sharing government costs for exotic disease". He said the demand for farmers to pay half of Defra's costs were unacceptable, adding: "Exotic diseases are not in this country and have to get into the country and the government has a responsibility to monitor them." And he dismissed the recent consultation on the plans, saying estimates amounted to "a load of figures chucked in a bucket".

The NFU does support plans for an independent body for animal health.

The new Bill to enact the cost-sharing plans was included in Mr Brown's draft legislative programme, setting out laws which can be expected in the Queen's Speech in the autumn.