April 11, 2002
Tests are still being carried out to ensure the safety of the North-East's only mass foot-and-mouth pyre site - almost one year after the controversial burning operations ended.
Contractors working for Defra are this week taking more soil samples from the contaminated site at Hemscott Hill near the Druridge Bay beauty spot in Northumberland.
The further checks and analysis are needed before council environmental health officials can give the site the all-clear and say it is safe to be used again.
Yesterday local people said the time being taken to complete the work was causing concern, and adding to fears that the mass carcase burning may have a long-term health legacy.
Twelve months ago this week villagers began protesting after the mass pyre was lit to burn thousands of slaughtered cattle from all over the North-East at the height of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.
Protesters staged a blockade to stop wagons delivering carcases after thick, acrid smoke from the pyre billowed into homes and sparked fears of a health and environmental timebomb.
The pyre was used to burn cattle over five years old, those most at risk of having BSE, and there have always been fears that the operation released potentially dangerous prions into the atmosphere and soil.
Environmental health officials at Castle Morpeth Council have been waiting for the results of soil sampling from Defra so that they can be satisfied that the site is de-contaminated and safe.
April 3, 2002
The army and police will be drafted in immediately in the event of a future foot-and-mouth outbreak, it has been reported.
The government was heavily criticised by farmers and opposition MPs for not bringing in soldiers earlier to handle the logistics of culling and disposing of animals.
The 2,030 cases of the disease led to the culling of more than four million animals and the slaughter of another two million for welfare reasons.
The battle to slaughter on infected farms within 24 hours of a report of the disease was won after the army became involved in co-ordination.
Disposal of the animals by rendering, burying and burning on funeral pyres also benefited from military help. Command control
Troops were only involved a month after the first outbreak at an Essex abattoir on 20 February last year.
At the peak of the outbreak, more than 2,000 armed forces personnel were involved, with command centres in hotspots, and a level of organisation said to be more complicated than UK involvement in the Gulf War.
The Financial Times reported that ministers would involve the military from day one in any future outbreak.
They fear the ‘Lessons Learned’ inquiry undertaken by Dr Iain Anderson could accuse the government of a serious error.
The paper quoted one minister as saying: ‘Anderson's very interested in command control.
‘He thinks we should have brought the army and police in on day one.’ Beefed-up contingency planning could be based on a model used in Australia.
Disease scare farm gets all clear March 5, 2002 A farm in north Yorkshire has been given the all clear after tests on suspected foot-and-mouth proved negative.
Tests at Mount Pleasant Farm in Hawnby, near Thirsk, showed there were no signs of the disease in the animals, it was confirmed on Sunday.
The ban on livestock movements within 8km radius of the farm will now be lifted.
Suspect lesions were found in the mouths of two sheep a week ago by government vets carrying out a mandatory inspection visit when farms restock.
Both animals were slaughtered as a precaution, with samples taken from them and a further 150 sheep on the farm.
But exhaustive testing at the Institute of Animal Health laboratory at Pirbright in Surrey and a further veterinary inspection revealed no traces of foot-and-mouth, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The news was a huge relief to farmer Robin Garbutt, 48, who said the disease had driven businesses to the brink of bankruptcy and cost him 2,000 sheep and 150 cattle.
‘Had this been the start of another year, it does not bear thinking about,’ he said.
250,000 people petition February 28, 2002 A full public inquiry into the foot-and-mouth crisis is being demanded by organisers of a petition containing a quarter of a million signatures.
The petition was presented to shadow attorney general Bill Cash today before being passed on to the House of Commons.
The Foot and Mouth Truth Campaign believes an investigation open to public scrutiny is the only way to assess the way the disease was handled and what is being done to prevent future outbreaks.
Despite widespread concerns about the transparency of its three investigations the government insists it will get to the truth quickly and without the high costs of a full public inquiry. But Mr Cash told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ‘What (the petition) really says in a nutshell is that this set of inquiries have been set up by the government effectively as a cover up.’
The campaign was launched last September by Lady Aspley with the support of the shadow attorney general, the National Farmers' Union, the Country Landowners' Association and the Countryside Alliance.
Lady Aspley said the petition has won ‘enormous support’, including backing from many people in towns and cities. She added: ‘It is vital that the government realise that they simply cannot continue with the cover-ups and spin that have prevailed throughout the crisis and a public inquiry is the only way that will enable us all to prevent such a disaster happening again.’
February 27, 2002 Farmers are waiting to find out if foot-and-mouth has broken out again in the UK after suspect lesions were found in the mouths of two sheep at Mount Pleasant Farm in Hawnby, near Thirsk.
Initial results of tests have proved negative but final results will not be known for 96 hours.
All livestock movements have been halted within a five-mile (8km) radius, and government vets are inspecting four other farms in the county which supplied the farm with sheep.
Animal Welfare Minister Elliot Morley said the case underlined the need for continued vigilance.
The lesions were discovered yesterday by government vets carrying out an inspection visit required when farms restock. Tests are being carried out at the Institute of Animal Health laboratory at Pirbright in Surrey.
All animals at the farm were slaughtered during the previous foot-and-mouth outbreak when the disease hit a neighbouring farm, but it was never found there or at the farms from which the two sheep had been bought.
Defra officials were still turning vehicles away from Mount Pleasant Farm this morning.
Foot-and-mouth warning Sheep back on the fells at last February 19, 2002
It is one year to the day since foot-and-mouth was detected in the UK – and farmers have said not enough has been done to prevent another epidemic.
Farming minister Lord Whitty has also said more must be done by the government, especially in controlling meat imports.
And the government's former chief scientist said the mass animal cull to combat the disease was based on flawed scientific advice.
Tony Evans, chairman of the National Farmers Union Livestock Committee in Essex, where the disease was first discovered, said the biggest remaining problem was imports of meat from areas where the disease is endemic.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ‘I think there's still a lot of detail that needs to be remembered and analysed and make sure that it doesn't happen again, and I don't believe we're there yet.’ Derelict farm
Lord Whitty told Today the government was still addressing all the lessons learned from ‘an absolutely devastating year’.
Meanwhile, the notorious Burnside Pig Farm, where the foot-and-mouth outbreak is believed to have started, is on the brink of reopening.
It was exactly a year ago today that a young vet on a routine inspection of an Essex abattoir discovered the virus which was traced to Burnside Farm, Heddon-on-the-Wall, on the outskirts of Newcastle, within days.
But it was too late to stop the spread of the virus.
It was only last month that the disease-ridden and derelict farm was torn down. Tenant Bobby Waugh quit the farm in December and the long- awaited clean-up started last month.
That work is due to end this week when landowner Phillip Leadbitter can finally look to the future.
In the North East, 186 farms were confirmed with the disease and 1,023 farms had livestock slaughtered as a precaution. Nationally, 3,912,700 cattle were slaughtered.
Most businesses devastated by the crisis have begun rebuilding and the livestock farmers who remain are gradually restocking as restrictions on the movement of animals relax.
and
Positive talks on mass burial site February 14, 2002 Plans to restore the mass foot-and-mouth burial site at Tow Law, County Durham, took a step forward as residents met with Government officials yesterday.
People living next to the Inkerman burial site are still waiting for an official closing date. But yesterday, members of Tow Law Town Council and the residents' liaison committee met with the Department of Environment for Food and Rural Affairs, at the site, to discuss its future.
Afterwards, Councillor Jenny Flynn said people were feeling much more positive about the restoration, but were still pressing for a closing date.
She said: ‘We have come back feeling a bit more positive. We have been asked for our opinion about what we want for the site.
‘We want to work together to put this behind us and get something positive at the end of it.
English farming 'unsustainable' January 29, 2002 A watershed report into food production and farming has called for reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy arguing the current situation is unsustainable.
The Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, chaired by Sir Donald Curry, recommends a sea-change in the way agricultural subsidies are dispensed.
The report calls for subsidies to be redirected from producing crops to protecting the countryside and recommends that supermarkets be encouraged to sell more locally-produced food.
Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the report. He said the current situation benefited no-one: 'farmers, taxpayers, consumers or the environment'.
The proposals have led to fears that food prices might be forced up. National Farmers Union's Ben Gill said he feared the proposals, if implemented, would effectively be 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'. .
Mr Blair set up the commission last August, in the wake of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
UK officially foot-and-mouth free January 23, 2002 The UK has regained its international status as a foot-and-mouth free country, opening the way for the full resumption of meat exports.
The decision by the Paris-based Office International des Epizooties - the international animal health organisation - means other countries are more likely to trade with the UK in meat, meat products, dairy products and pedigree animals.
The announcement comes after Britain was declared foot-and-mouth free last week almost a year after the first outbreak which led to the culling of more than four million animals.
The disease cost the taxpayer almost £1.5bn in compensation, disinfecting, vets and slaughterers bills, according to the latest government figures.
Ben Gill, president of the National Farmers' Union, said: 'This decision means we are recognised on the world-wide stage as having beaten this dreadful disease.
'It's great news that this has happened so quickly and is a testament to everyone who has worked hard to achieve this, including government, vets and scientists.'
Exports of British beef, lamb and pork, along with live pigs, have already re-started within Europe but all require a special animal health certificate.
Government 'failed to control imports' say farmers January 21, 2002
The National Farmers' Union is expected to accuse the government of failing to keep proper controls on the import of meat in its first full review of how the foot-and-mouth outbreak was handled.
The assessment, due to be published today, is also likely to claim that ministers neglected to prepare properly for possible disease outbreaks.
The report will be the NFU's contribution to the inquiry set up by the government to look at the lessons to be learned from the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
The union is expected to accuse the government of a dereliction of duty in failing to strengthen the system of inspecting meat coming into Britain from abroad.
The import of infected meat is the most likely cause of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.
The report comes just days after Britain was officially declared free of foot-and-mouth, almost 11 months after the first case of the disease was found. Culling vindicated
The NFU will also attack ministers for a lack of contingency planning before the epidemic. Failure to set up simulations beforehand, it says, added to delays in getting on top of the disease.
But the farmers' union will not quarrel with the basic tactics of handling the outbreak.
It says that the policy of culling millions of livestock has been vindicated by the fact that the disease has apparently disappeared.
More than two million animals were killed under the Livestock Welfare Disposal Scheme, which deals with animals no longer economically viable to feed or look after or suffering because of restrictions.
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Have your say
Do you have views on this subject? Click on the link to write to me and share them!
Write to Sue
read on
New outbreak role for army
Disease scare farm gets all clear
250,000 people petition for full inquiry
Is the nightmare back?
Foot-and-mouth warning one year on
Positive talks on mass burial site
English farming 'unsustainable'
UK officially foot-and-mouth free
Government 'failed to control imports' say farmers
Horror at 'beauty spot' plan for burial site
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