Learning lessons on coping with major outbreak of disease

MEMORIES of the world's worst ever epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which hit the UK on 23 February, 2001, still remain painful to farmers everywhere.

There were 1,030 confirmed cases of which 187 were in Scotland: but more than 10,000 farms in the UK were subject to some form of control and culling of many millions of sheep and cattle on the grounds that they might have been "dangerous contacts".

The total bill was one that Gordon Brown as chancellor found painful: close on £8 billion was the final cost in terms of direct compensation to farmers and associated charges to all those involved in eliminating this awful scourge.

One Scottish farmer was paid around £3 million in compensation for the loss of his pedigree cattle and sheep. By an awful quirk of fate, Scotland was officially declared free from FMD on 9 September, 2001.

Subsequently a report, Lessons to be Learned, was published by the UK government following a long investigation by Sir Iain Anderson. But there still lingered a fear that FMD would reappear as animal diseases are becoming increasingly internationalised, with air travel cheaper than ever before.

Anxieties became a reality early last August when it was announced that four cases of FMD had been confirmed in Surrey, close to the UK government's allegedly secure animal health centre at Pirbright, where research was being conducted into possible vaccines for FMD and other major diseases. Before mid-September, a further four cases were detected.

The Anderson recommendations were acted upon with an immediate ban on all livestock movements. Scottish farmers, abattoirs and auction marts concurred with this decision: no-one wished to revert to the chaos of 2001, which saw most marts closed down for the better part of nine months.

There were some in Scotland who believed the measures were overly draconian, especially as Surrey was the better part of 1,000 miles distant from Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. The short-term impact was considerable: the price of lambs halved and all exports to mainland Europe were suspended at a critical time of the year. Pressure from NFU Scotland and associated organisations resulted in the Scottish Government announcing a range of support for sheep farmers at a cost of at least £25m. Old ewes and lambs from the more remote areas were slaughtered at the expense of Holyrood. Welfare was clearly a major issue.

It was then that Richard Lochhead, the Cabinet secretary for rural affairs, decided that there was a clear need for a purely Scottish report on the implications of the FMD.

That has been the remit in recent months of Professor Jim Scudamore, a former head of the UK the state veterinary service and previously Scotland's top vet. He was ably assisted by John Ross, a former president of NFU Scotland who is now the chairman of the Edinburgh-based Moredun Foundation, one of the leading animal health establishments, not just in the UK, but on a worldwide basis. Scudamore takes the view that the FMD crisis, though relatively small compared with 2001, was well handled by the Scottish Government and it associated agencies, but with some reservations.

He said: "I found that the national authorities and the agricultural community in Scotland responded well to FMD being confirmed in Great Britain.

"This review will go a long way to further reduce risk and minimise disruption should the disease reoccur, but there is a clear need to address some of the concordats that have been in place with the devolved administrations since 1999."

Those comments clearly relate to who should pick up the cost of any temporary support measures. The Scottish Government went out on a limb to help hill farmers, probably anticipating that the UK Treasury would later make a financial contribution. That is now highly unlikely, and remains an issue that must be resolved, as is that of how soon movement restrictions can be relaxed.

Lochhead and his colleagues concur: "A review of the arrangements which England and Scotland have over animal health and welfare issues and their delivery is urgently needed."

Jim McLaren, the president of NFU Scotland, was very much at the sharp end of matters last autumn, with hill farmers finding that they had almost no market for their sheep or cattle during a normally peak period of movements. No sales for hill farmers make bankers anxious.

Farmers want to see a degree of "regionalisation" in the event of any serious disease outbreak, that may well include bluetongue – a problem of sheep, cattle and goats, which first arrived in the UK last year.

McLaren said: "The issue of regionalisation, whereby Scotland can be isolated from certain disease controls to protect vital export markets, is hugely important to us.

"There is a clear need for the Scottish Government to sit down with the other devolved administrations and Whitehall, as well as the European Union, to deliver a time when we can resume trade on a normal basis without hindrance.

"But credit to the Scottish Government, which did a lot to help our farmers through an extremely difficult time."

However, the bottom line remains over the question of who will compensate farmers in the event of a major disaster. The lines are decidedly blurred, but both Scudamore and Ross have made it crystal clear that this issue must be resolved, along with other responsibilities relating to disease control.

It is virtually certain that Scotland will, in the near future, be subject to another major disease problem. If that results in the closing down of the countryside, then consumers will have to pay the final cost: there are no cheap foods available on the international scene.

Those who doubt that assertion would do well to note that the ex-farm price of beef in Brazil has risen by 80 per cent in 12 months, despite the fact that all exports to the EU are subject to an almost total embargo.