MINISTERS were given warning nine months ago that meat from Africa being smuggled through Heathrow airport carried an "extremely high" risk of foot and mouth disease.

A letter sent to Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, last May voiced fears that passengers from Nigeria and Ghana were bringing in potentially infected meat, including entire butchered deer and dead monkeys, in their suitcases. The head of the company responsible for animal product shipments at Heathrow said last night that baggage handlers were refusing to touch luggage containing anteaters, tortoise legs, and maggot-infested fish.

With foot and mouth spreading to animal herds across the country, scientists have tried to identify the source of the outbreak. One suggestion is that the disease was present in meat products brought in unwittingly from outside Europe and possibly from Africa.

A dossier passed to The Daily Telegraph, including the letter to Mr Brown and graphic photographs of passenger bags filled with decaying meat and fish, has reinforced concerns that some flights arriving in Britain could pose a direct risk to animal and human health.

Although there is as yet no evidence that the current outbreak of foot and mouth was brought in from Africa, the revelations will heighten fears that British ports are incapable of preventing the entry of devastating diseases. Clive Lawrance, director of Ciel Logistics based near Heathrow, wrote to Mr Brown to warn that financial constraints and pressure to concentrate on collecting revenue meant the authorities were failing to take the problem seriously.

He told the Agriculture Minister: "The risk to the community is extremely high given that some of this product could contain disease, ie anthrax, foot and mouth, etc. Do I need to say more? Currently the general public are unaware of this risk. Whilst revenue collection is a high consideration, I have stated to the authorities that one outbreak of a serious contamination would be embarrassing to all concerned including you."

Mr Lawrance said last night that his letter was ignored by Mr Brown, but was passed on to Stella Jarvis, the senior surveyor of customs at Heathrow, who confirmed his concerns.

He said that after an inspection of a flight from Ghana in September, which resulted in nearly 1,400 kgs of meat being confiscated, police were called to intervene when passengers tried to prevent customs and MAFF officers from seizing their bags. The meat was for specialist markets. A spokesman for MAFF said: "We are aware that this is a recurring problem which we take seriously."