More than a million animals could have been saved from slaughter during the foot and mouth epidemic, according to new research.

As independent scientists said that failure by the government to meet its 24 and 48 hour targets for culling animals infected with the foot and mouth virus, the government's chief scientific adviser conceded the policy was "not as efficiently run".

A team from Imperial College, led by professor Neil Ferguson, say in the scientific magazine "Nature" that faster culling at the start of the outbreak could have cut the total number of cases - now standing at 2030 - by 16 per cent and reduced the number of animals being slaughtered - currently 3,912,000 - by 30 per cent.

The new study considered factors such as the speed of the epidemic and the mix of animals and concluded that the spread of the disease followed animal, people or vehicle movements rather than being spread by contact between animals or by wind dispersal.

The containment measures slowed the spread of the virus, but were unable to reverse it. The analysis shows the culls were necessary but that the failure of authorities to meet their targets for culling animals on all contiguous farms within two days. The scientists argue that the outbreak may have been "substantially reduced in scale" had the measures been put in place earlier.

Speaking on BBC Radio, the government's chief scientific adviser, professor David King, conceded that there was "a period when the implementation of the policy was not being achieved" but said that overall the containment strategy had been a "great success".

Commenting on the latest report, he said: "It is one thing to model a policy like that - I am a scientist - and it is another to carry it out in practice."

The Liberal Democrats said the government should take more responsibility for the "shambles" of the cull policy.

Malcolm Bruce, the party's rural affairs spokesman, said: "The failure to bring foot-and-mouth under control is a shambles of the government's own making...The accusation that a million fewer animals would have had to be slaughtered had the government acted sooner on expert advice is distressing enough. The government must stop passing the buck."