Archive: The 1967 outbreak

Doomed: Cattle at a cancelled auction in 1967

BBC News Online looks back through the BBC audio and video archive to the last big outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK.

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All vehicles entering Northern Ireland had to be decontaminated

The 1967 outbreak affected the whole of the UK. This report from Northern Ireland details the enforcement of strict precautions to prevent the further spread of the disease. Passengers arriving at ports from the rest of the UK had to be disinfected and walk across deep rubber impregnated mats.

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In the past, foot-and-mouth was considered treatable

In this extraordinary BBC interview from 1967, an elderly woman remembers how her grandfather used to cope with foot and mouth outbreaks before the use of widespread scientific vaccination - by treating his cattle with rocksalt and Stockholm tar.

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Cow carcasses seen from the air

A Money Programme episode on the foot & mouth epidemic in Shropshire in 1967 explains how farmers could claim compensation from the government and looks at the search for the cause of the disease.

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Police checkpoint

This radio report from the time concentrates on the building of a 'Great West Wall' designed to protect the south-west of the country from the spread of the disease. Farmers in the region were urged to 'lay siege' to their farms.

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