The strain of the virus that is now affecting our livestock was first identified in India in 1970 and has been spreading throughout the world ever since. Our last outbreak of the disease was over 30 years ago. This outbreak was first discovered at an Essex abattoir 12 days before this article was written and already it is all over the U K, including Northern Ireland. Infection is so contagious that animals need to be destroyed and burnt on farms and cannot be moved to abattoirs. It is tragic for farmers to see their livestock been destroyed in the places that they once thrived, especially this time of year when calves and lambs are being born.
Every farmer fears the worst and terrified of finding the disease amongst their animals.
Zoos also fear the disease as susceptible animals would all need to be destroyed once one case of infection was found. The foot and mouth crisis is costing Britain's farmers 8 million pounds a day. Intensive farming is being criticised in many quarters and the farming industry may need to review the way it operates. The scale of production has increased over 30 percent due to intensive farming methods but some feel that it is at quite a price in in terms of the quality of life that our animals enjoy. Some farmers naturally object to this point of view as they have continued to farm as their fathers and grandfather's did before them and argue that this outbreak is due to infected meat and has been imported and feed to animals.