The cost of meat in Oxfordshire has nearly doubled as the effects of the foot and mouth crisis start to bite. Butchers across the county are being faced with soaring prices as supplies of lamb, pork, beef and even poultry start to run dry in slaughterhouses across the region.

Many say they can foot the bill in the short-term, but if the effect of the crisis continues into next week they will be forced to increase their prices and pass on the rising costs to customers.

Fears: Charlbury butcher John Brain Independent butchers prefer to buy meat from local slaughterhouses but as supplies become increasingly scarce they must look to suppliers further afield. And they say shoppers are making the situation even worse because many are panic-buying in a bid to stock up their freezers.

Joe Simmons, who runs Simmons Bros shop with his brother Will, in Templars Square, Cowley, says his locally-based suppliers are already charging nearly double for meat carcasses.

Today, he was expecting to hear from his suppliers the latest price of meat per pound. It is only then that he will be able to decide how much he can afford to buy.

Mr Simmons usually pays around 60p per pound for pork but yesterday, prices were hovering at around £1.10 per pound. Lamb was being sold at £2 per pound instead of the usual £1.10.

Mr Simmons says he had stopped selling any special offers in the shop because he cannot afford to do so. He says: "Prices have almost doubled on carcass meat, especially pork, lamb and chicken. Beef is not too bad.

"We have not put our prices up yet and are charging the usual going rate, but if things stay the same next week then prices will have to go up.

We are in the front line, so customers will blame us, but there's nothing we can do. We still have to pay our rent and rates."

Andy Brock, who owns Brock Butchers in Botley, says it is the small independent butchers who will suffer first.

Limited storage space means small firms cannot stockpile meat and, if the crisis continues, they will be forced to pay inflated prices for meat.

Mr Brock says: "This crisis is affecting us all, particularly the small independent traders. We are the ones who will be hit the hardest.

Big supermarket firms have massive buying power. They could buy a huge consignment of lamb from New Zealand, for example, without noticing, but we simply can't do that."

Charlbury family butcher John Brain fears the outbreak of foot and mouth disease could prove to be the final straw for his business.

Mr Brain, who has been a butcher for more than 25 years, says: "A small business like mine relies on the support of day-to-day trade and should business decline any further I will have no option to close the shop permanently."