More vets were crucial. To ease their burden, army logistic teams were brought in to do their administration. The time between visiting a diseased animals and going on to the next outbreak has been shortened to 72 hours. Mr Blair pledged that the time between the first call and slaughter would be less than 24 hours. The second problem, which Maff blamed partly on farmers, was the time taken for valuations of animals before slaughter.
Every farmer has a right under the Animal Health Act to have animals valued before being killed.
On a farm with 2,000 assorted sheep, cattle and goats, that can take time. A farmer also has the right to choose his valuer and to appeal if he thinks the valuation is wrong, a process that could cost two days. The ministry has provided blanket valuations slightly more generous than the farmer could expect. It will cost the taxpayer millions. The third difficulty was getting the slaughter teams to the farms to kill hundreds of animals.