An Australian vet recalls his time working in the United Kingdom during a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak more than 20 years ago, when 6 million animals were euthanased.
Howard Thompson can normally be found healing animals at his mixed practice in central west NSW. But, in 2001, Dr Thompson was at the front line of the United Kingdom's devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious livestock virusAustralian vets were sent to assist the response and one warns of the dire consequences should FMD arrive here
Dr Thompson arrived in late April as part of an Australian contingent to help supervise the humane destruction of infected sheep and cattle.It spread rapidly and was easily carried around the UK by people and machinery.The UK government embarked on a program of eradication, culling infected animals within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms.
Dr Thompson's role was to supervise the slaughtermen's work, ensuring it was done humanely and completely."When we arrived, which was in late April, the whole epidemic had been happening since February and, by that stage, I think the whole livestock community just wanted to see an end to it," Dr Thompson said.Symptoms of the disease include drooling and blisters in the mouth.
"[The farmers] were very compliant and it really depended on the individual farmers recognising the problem in their livestock and making contact to have it investigated and they were extremely prompt in doing that," he said.The carcasses were burned and, later in the outbreak, they were taken to mass pits for burial.
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