Foot and Mouth in the UK

When the first case of Foot and Mouth was announced on 19 February 2001, because it was in Essex, the other side of the country to Gloucestershire, where I practice, it seemed as if it would not have a major impact. The second case then occurred in Northumberland, even further away, and although we began to improve our hygiene precautions between farms, it still seemed to be a problem that would affect others, but not ourselves. It was not until early March, when the first case was diagnosed in sheep in Gloucestershire, that the real horror of this disease made itself felt. We thought that the imposition of a total livestock movement ban on Friday 24 February was a draconian measure, but how wrong we were. If only the Government had not dithered for those few days, then we would not be in the mess that we are in now. It was undoubtedly a major mistake and accounts for the massive problem that exists at the moment.

At that time we were unaware of the extent of the infection in sheep. There was a huge demand for lamb on mainland Europe and large numbers were being exported, keeping the UK price very buoyant. However, the announcement of Foot and Mouth disease, confirmed on Tuesday 20 February, meant that all exports were stopped. The lorries already loaded with sheep and on their way to mainland Europe, then had to be turned back and the sheep were then taken to various markets throughout the UK, particularly in Devon, Wales, Herefordshire and Northampton. The sheep were sold on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 February and because trade was good, they were purchased by a large number of farmers and spread around the UK. This was disastrous. Instead of having one single focus of infection, we now had large numbers of outbreaks throughout the country.

The second major problem is that disease in sheep can be quite difficult to diagnose. With the current Pan Asian strain, lesions can be quite mild and many sheep will recover. There was one horror story told by a veterinarian who examined 580 sheep individually, catching each one, sitting it up, examining all four feet and also the mouth. Lesions of disease were only found in three sheep, but disease was confirmed on subsequent laboratory examination. This sent shock waves throughout the veterinary profession. When examining sheep for Foot and Mouth, did we really have to go through each animal in flocks of one, two, three or four thousand, checking each individually before we could be sure they were free? As a consequence it is likely that some of the early cases were either totally missed or left too long and virus was allowed to disseminate. When this was realised, the reverse effect happened - rather than miss a case, FMD was 'over diagnosed', and initial test results now show that up to 20% of all herds/flocks culled because of FMD were subsequently found to be negative. We have certainly not done particularly well.

The infrastructure that we had in place to control Foot and Mouth was not prepared for the scale of the epidemic. We now know that if virus spread is to be controlled, it is vital that affected animals are slaughtered almost immediately and at an absolute maximum of 24 hours of disease being diagnosed. Because of the difficulty of diagnosis in sheep, this posed enormous problems. We have also learnt that disease is most likely to spread to contiguous, i.e. adjoining, farms. To prevent the spread of infection adjoining farms must be eliminated as soon as possible and preferably within 48 hours of the initial case being diagnosed. This is because the highest rate of virus excretion occurs in the 4-6 days before clinical signs are seen. Wait for clinical signs and you will get a further wave of virus spread. The "48 hour" contiguous cull policy was not implemented until 23 March, i.e. a full four weeks after disease began. Initially it seemed an absolutely draconian measure. One very small flock of infected sheep could lead to the destruction of three or four dairy herds, two or three pig units and other flocks of sheep, simply on the contiguous premises concept. The rate of slaughter was unimaginable and the problems of destruction of the subsequent carcases became enormous. Towards the end of April the rules were changed again, such that only sheep contiguous with an infected premises were culled. The cattle were monitored for clinical signs.

Two of my colleagues joined the Ministry to work in the Foot and Mouth effort, leaving two of us in the Practice to look after the remaining clinical work. As the first cases of disease entered our own Practice, we feared for the worst. This was particularly the case as one of the outbreaks was in the centre of the Practice. Fortunately the owner insisted on immediate destruction of the affected animals and these were destroyed within a few hours of the diagnosis being made. However, it did not prevent the slaughter of all the stock on two of his neighbours' premises. The fear within the Practice increased and for me personally reached a peak when disease was confirmed on my next door neighbour's premises.

It is extremely easy to agree with a policy of contiguous culling until you are faced with the horror of having to agree to cull your own herd. Admittedly mine was an extremely small beef suckler herd and it is not my main livelihood, but I was still attached to those cows. I had fed and attended them for the past 14 years and they were due to calve within a week. It would have been absurd for 'the local veterinarian' to ask for an exception to the contiguous cull policy and I found myself having to agree to their immediate slaughter. Fortunately the anticipation was worse than the realisation and within a few hours I found myself dosing them with Rompun (zylazine), for sedation, and standing beside them while they were shot.

The logistics of carcase removal are enormous and within a few hours, before they were moved, and as the carcases bloated, one of my cows began to give birth. By that stage both calf and dam were already dead and all I had to look forward to was their removal and stacking on the massive funeral pyre which was being built at the neighbouring farm. On this farm they somehow had to build a big enough fire to burn some 3000 sheep, 900 pigs, 400 dairy cows and approximately 300 beef animals.

As I write this, the fires are still burning, and they have been for over two weeks. Each morning as I leave my house I can see the smoke, smell the burning flesh and look over the fields to see the empty pastures that were once part of my livelihood and veterinary practice. The emptiness is devastating. I know there will be a tomorrow, but at the moment it is difficult to predict what it will bring. The rate of new cases is dropping dramatically, but we are now faced with a massive serological survey of the national sheep flock to identify the remaining pockets of infection.

Roger Blowey
22nd April 2001