Foot-and-mouth disease

Britain is officially free of foot-and-mouth almost a year after the first case of the disease was found. BBC News Online looks at the course of the epidemic and its aftermath, as well as looking back through the archive to the last big outbreak of the disease in 1967.

Inquiry highlights government mistakes

Inquiry Chairman Dr Iain Anderson said that contingency plans were inadequate.

The government responded too slowly to the foot-and-mouth outbreak. An official report looking at lessons to be learned says there should have been an immediate ban on livestock movements. It also says vaccination should form part of the strategy in any future outbreak.

The BBC's Judith Moloney reports

Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett: "It's a very serious and thorough report"

Report author Dr Iain Anderson: "At a certain stage in the epidemic there was a sense of panic"

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Click below for reports tracing the course of the outbreak

• Aftermath and Inquiries

• September 2001
• August 2001
• July 2001
• June 2001
• May 2001
• April 2001
• March 2001
• February 2001

The farm which surrounds Carolyns home has foot-and-mouth disease

Women loses fight to save animals
An Edinburgh court rejects a bid to save a number of animals from slaughter. Carolyn Hoffe had barricaded the animals in her house, in an attempt to save their lives. Carolyn Hoffe spoke to the BBC about her ordeal.


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Pollution tests calm fears
Air pollution tests carried out near a funeral pyre in Cumbria suggest there is no 'significant danger' from incinerating carcasses of livestock. It had been feared that cancer causing chemicals, Dioxins, might be released into the environment.

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TT races cancelled
The TT races on the Isle of Man have become the latest sporting event to fall victim to the disease. The event is cancelled due to fears the virus could spread there. Geoff Le Page is the Isle of Man's Director of Tourism.

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A pig is vaccinated in Kleve near the German-Dutch border

Should we vaccinate?
A debate which has split the nation is whether we should be vaccinating the animals rather than culling them. Peter Wood, a vet in Gloucester and co-founder of "vets for vaccination" is very worried about the current policy.

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Are Supermarkets to blame?
Safeway's Director of Communications Kevin Hawkins "If the Prime Minister wants a proper debate... let us do it in a calm and rational atmosphere"

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The cost of change
The Soil Association's Patrick Holden: "If we want fundamental change... we have to expect to pay more"

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A checkpoint in 1967

1967 outbreak affects the UK
Strict precautions, such as traffic checkpoints, were enforced in 1967 to prevent the further spread of the disease.

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Farmers urged to 'lay siege' to farms
The 'Great West Wall' was designed to protect the south-west of the country from the spread of the disease in 1967.

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Farmer catches the disease
Speaking in 1966, Bobby Brewis a farmer from the north east of England talks about his shock at catching the disease - the only confirmed human case in the UK.

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Counting the costs
A Money Programme episode from 1967 looks at compensation for farmers and the search for the cause of the disease.

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Learning from the past
Speaking in 1967, an elderly woman remembers how her grandfather used to cope with foot-and-mouth outbreaks before the widespread use of vaccination.

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