Critical report on FMD role (From Gazette & Herald)

Critical report on FMD role

FARMERS in North and East Yorkshire say a highly critical report into the Government's handling of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic must be acted on to avoid future disasters.

The House of Commons public accounts committee published its findings, accusing the then ministry of agriculture of a "serious misjudgement".

The report says the ministry assumed the risks of an outbreak were low, and totally failed to plan for the scale of problems faced.

The Government, the report said, was too slow to impose a national movement ban on livestock. It should not have allowed the blanket closure of footpaths for a lengthy period, should not have disposed of carcasses on mass funeral pyres, lacked a clear-cut policy on whether and when vaccination should be used, and was too slow to call on the armed forces for assistance.

The committee reported that lessons learned in the 1967-1968 outbreak seemed to have "fallen out of the collective memory of the department".

Rosey Dunn, National Farmers' Union county chairwoman, said: "It was a terrible disaster and it never wants to be allowed to happen again." Mrs Dunn, who farms at Stockton-on-the-Forest said it was vital to take the findings were taken very seriously.

"The outbreak of foot and mouth was very badly handled at the start - animal movements should not have been allowed from the very first day they suspected foot and mouth was in the country.

"That was the obvious number one point, and it was a farce after that."

Livestock farmer Tommy Sewell, from Melbourne, said: "In 1967 a friend of mine, who's a vet, said they shot the animals if they suspected foot and mouth, but this time they were waiting four days for results.

"They came round with biosecurity measures when it was too late.

"If any disease like that comes into the country again, the reaction has got to be immediate."

MPs noted that the department, headed at the time by Nick Brown, had contingency plans focused only on agriculture. But the outbreak caused most damage to the tourist industry - with £5 billion of losses.

A DEFRA spokesman said: "We were dealing with an outbreak on an unprecedented scale, handling a vast operation, and while we got a great many things right we accept that there were mistakes and lessons have to be learnt."

Updated: 10:20 Wednesday, March 19, 2003