Telegraph
2001.08.29
Foot & Mouth Is Back
And The Government Isn't Ready
By Alice Thomson
 
 News: Livestock markets stay banned for autumn

L
IKE their predecessors in 1914, the Government encouraged us to be optimistic in the early days. It would soon all be over, not just by Christmas but in a matter of months. Now, like our grandparents, we know different. The fight against foot and mouth looks likely to continue into winter and beyond. The general staff in Whitehall has shot a generation of British livestock and thrown them into muddy trenches to no avail. In Northumberland today, farmers are fighting for the same ground they thought they had captured in March.

Like the foot soldiers of that earlier war, rural communities have lost confidence in their ministerial generals. They obey them only because, after so much bloody sacrifice and piles of stinking corpses, no one can bear to admit that it has all been pointless. Think back to the Easter holidays. On April 19, the Government's chief scientist, Professor David King, said foot and mouth was "fully under control". The chief vet, Jim Scudamore, waved computer models showing that new cases would be down to one a day by May. Phoenix the calf was saved by Alastair Campbell. On May 3, Tony Blair announced the disease effectively beaten. Farmers had to reopen the footpaths.

At first, Mr Blair's optimism seemed vindicated. Three million dead animals didn't harm Labour at the general election. Agriculture wasn't mentioned in the Queen's Speech, just a Bill to ban hunting. Margaret Beckett, the minister in charge of the newly created Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, went caravanning in France. There were still up to five new cases a day, including an outbreak among the hefted flocks around Brecon, in Cumbria and Yorkshire, but so what? Even the Tories didn't care. The leadership candidates were too busy arguing about Europe and eating curries.

In Devon this summer, the disinfectant mats dried and curled in the sun, the only smoke came from barbecues. Tour buses returned to Exmoor. Walkers were eating steak at the Royal Oak in Withypool, children were swimming at the Tarr Steps, salmon were caught on the Exe. One farmer took his first holiday in 10 years after receiving compensation, others bought new milking machines. One local farmer kept his binoculars trained over his fields to catch wandering ramblers, many gave up bothering.

Now foot and mouth has returned to where it started, in Northumberland. There were 13 new cases by last night. The tabloid front pages were full of Posh Spice's new lip stud. But this is scarier.

No one knows how the virus crept back, once again choosing the most beautiful valleys to attack. But its tactics look ominously familiar. There are red warning notices around the 400-square mile exclusion zone in the Allendale area. The marksmen have returned. The B&B owners are distraught. The pan- asiatic virus type O hates sunbathing, it prefers the damp and rain and will thrive on the increase in animal movement that occurs in the autumn. It could be the start of a long winter campaign. We're not ready for it.

The body count has already crept up to nearly four million. Almost all of these were healthy animals. The bill for killing them has reached over £2.2 billion. The Institute of Directors predicted that the cost to the country could reach £20 billion if the epidemic continued into July. It is now nearly September.

Mr Blair has done nothing over the summer to prepare for another onslaught of the disease. Instead, his policy has been focused on getting rid of as many small farmers as possible, first undermining them in the eyes of the public, then trying to pay them off. Rumours were spread that farmers had been buying infected sheep's tails (never proved), the public was told that infected farms in England were getting £100,000 to clear up (it was more like £35,000), and that farmers are now happy millionaires as a result of generous compensation claims (if they're all doing so well, why is the suicide rate still 60 per cent above the national average?).

Lord Haskins, the new "countryside tsar", was primed to forecast that more than half our farms would be out of business within 20 years. Others would be "milking their cows in the morning, then working on a BMW assembly line" during the day. This would leave a few agri-businesses to mass produce cheap food for the supermarkets and chains (including Lord Haskins's Northern Foods and Express Dairies). Mr Blair also set up three private inquiries and seven non-governmental inquiries. But none of his efforts has been directed at halting the spread of the disease or, indeed, coming clean about the Government's chaotic approach to it. Nothing, for instance, has been done to stem illegal meat imports.

Yesterday, a group of MPs called for a full public inquiry. This will take months and the Government never took any notice of the Duke of Northumberland's extensive report into the 1967 outbreak.

There is only one weapon we can deploy to beat this virus: vaccination. Ben Gill of the NFU, speaking in Cumbria this month, was still insisting that vaccination wouldn't work because vaccinated produce would have to be specially labelled in supermarkets. But consumer associations have dropped this demand. Animals are already vaccinated against other diseases. And vaccinated meat is safe to eat: the Argentines have it for breakfast.

The tourist industry, the Soil Association, animal welfare groups and many vets have backed vaccination, first suggested in the 1967 report. The farmers are still divided, worried about their export markets. But when Holland was invaded by the virus in March, only the infected livestock were killed and a policy of "ring vaccination" of adjacent farms was employed. Holland was confirmed virus-free on June 25. It is exporting meat again.

French, Dutch and German farmers are now pushing for the EU to adopt an official policy of ring vaccination without slaughter when ministers meet for a summit this autumn. This is Britain's only hope. It should volunteer to test vaccination for the benefit of other European countries. The estimated cost of such a programme is £200 million but it could save billions. Mr Blair should support it if he doesn't want to spend the winter bogged down in Northumberland mud.

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