The outbreak was tiny, and confined to Surrey, but the containment operation included restrictions on abattoir activity and animal movements, and other countries imposed import bans, which all had knock-on effects.

Only four cases of foot and mouth disease (FMD) were confirmed, in August and September 2007.

The source of the strain of virus concerned was blamed on a laboratory at Pirbright, near Guildford, Surrey, occupied by the government-funded Institute for Animal Health and a vaccine-producing company, Merial Animal Health, which rents space in the same premises, to take advantage of the licence for FMD research held by the landlord, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The licence was issued by the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

The National Farmers Union's solicitors, Thring Townsend Lee & Pemberton, have collected reports supporting a theory that the virus might have escaped through a broken drain and been carried off the premises by builders working on a car park.

But Surrey County Council, which might have prosecuted, decided in May this year that it was not possible to prove fault.

Now the farmers' lawyers are out to prove that Defra acted irresponsibly in licensing the premises and/or there was negligence by the two tenants. All three defendants deny liability. The claims were officially delivered yesterday and the High Court in London will be asked to hear preliminary arguments and set a date for a hearing.

The Yorkshire claimant is ACMC Ltd, a pig-breeding business based at Beeford, near Driffield.

Its chairman, Stephen Curtis, said yesterday: "Everything came to a standstill in the livestock industry. We were in the middle of an order for 2,000 breeding stock for Russia. We delivered 500 head and lost the rest of the order. And Russia still has not lifted its import restrictions."

He said the FMD scare had also stopped contracts for the Philippines and Thailand.

Sheep farmers from Cumbria and Wales are also among the 14 plaintiffs.