Six months of farm misery

Burning pyres marred the countryside

Six months after the foot-and-mouth outbreak began in the UK BBC News Online's Margaret Ryan reports on some of the key moments of the epidemic.

For many 2001 will be remembered as a time when much of the countryside was plunged into crisis as farmers saw nearly 4m of their livestock slaughtered and the tourism industry suffered as visitors stayed away.

The government is determined to eliminate the disease

Former Agriculture Minister Nick Brown

The number of confirmed cases stands at 1,960 but the outbreak seems to be receding.

Questions are now being asked about the lessons learned from the crisis.

From its beginnings on a Northumberland farm in February the foot-and-mouth outbreak quickly became an epidemic that gripped the UK.

At the outset the then Agriculture Minister Nick Brown pledged: "The government is determined to eliminate the disease."

The first confirmed case was on an abattoir in Essex.

As the number of cases rose daily the mass slaughter and burning of livestock on infected farms began in an effort to halt the spread of this highly infectious disease.

This was later extended to become a pre-emptive cull of all healthy animals on farms within a two-mile radius of infected farms.

Export ban

On discovery of the virus, the government and the European Commission immediately banned live animal and animal products exports - a ban which is still in place.

Mr Blair urged American visitors to come to Britain

EU countries, which had recently imported British livestock, carried out pre-emptive culls.

The disease continued to spread, with clusters appearing in Cumbria and Devon.

And there were then cases in France, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.

Restrictions were placed on livestock movement from infected farms as farmers anxiously waited to hear if their livelihoods would suffer.

Local councils closed footpaths and bridleways bringing home the extent of the crisis to town and country.

Disinfectant mats became a familiar sight wherever it was feared that it was likely that the disease could be spread.

And the tourism industry suffered as visitors stayed away.

Army drafted in

Hundreds of vets were recruited by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (Maff) to test for the virus.

The army was drafted in as the backlog grew in the number of carcasses waiting to be incinerated and disposed of.

Phoenix the Calf's plight evoked sympathy

But as the pile of carcasses grew, so too did the criticism of the government's handling of the crisis.

Opinion was divided on whether the government had underestimated the extent of the crisis and been too slow in bringing in the army to help with the disposal of livestock.

And the slaughter policy itself came under attack with some asking whether or not vaccination would have been a more cost effective and appropriate way of containing the disease.

Mr Brown said vaccination had not been ruled out but the cull policy continued, amid concerns about pollution from the burning pyres.

By the end of March a government report suggested the number of cases could reach 4,000 by June.

Then in April the plight of one animal captured the imagination of the public when Phoenix the calf was spared from the cull on a Devon farm after surviving for five days under a mound of slaughtered cattle.

The government was to relax the policy of slaughtering healthy cattle but denied this had anything to do with the public outcry over Phoenix.

Elections delayed

In March Tony Blair insisted the May local elections would go ahead saying that a delay would give the impression that Britain was "closed for business".

He appeared on American television to persuade US tourists to come to Britain.

He told NBC: "Britain is open for business, you can go to any town, city and village that you want."

But by April Mr Blair announced that the local elections would be delayed by a month in turn signalling a 7 June general election.

He said he wanted to take account of the "feelings and sensitivities" of people in affected areas.

Over by June

In April the government's chief scientist Professor David King said there should be hardly any new cases of foot-and-mouth disease by June.

Nick Brown continued to insist the outbreak was under control

But by June Mr King accepted that a fresh bout of cases meant that the epidemic was likely to continue to August.

In May and June restrictions imposed during the epidemic began to be lifted.

The movement of livestock from infected areas for slaughter started to be permitted again under licence.

And local councils' blanket footpath closure bans began to be lifted.

Inquiries

The government has now announced it will hold three independent inquiries into the crisis falling short of the Conservative party's call for a full public inquiry.

And a fresh row has broken out over farmers getting high compensation payments after it emerged that the government had received individual claims of more than £1m from 37 farmers.

The cost of the crisis is still being calculated but it has been estimated that the foot-and-mouth epidemic has already cost taxpayers more than £2bn.

The jury is still out on whether the crisis was handled in the most effective way.

How far the inquires go into answering questions about what lessons can be learned remains to be seen.

One thing is certain, farmers and the tourism industry are in no doubt that their livelihoods have suffered.