After a "slaughter of 1,800 apparently healthy sheep as part of a massive preemptive cull of livestock that may have come into contact with the infection," the Associated Press reported March 18, many farmers "have complained bitterly about the plan to kill tens of thousands of healthy-appearing animals on the mere suspicion that they could have been exposed to foot-and-mouth disease."

The British government decided to order all sheep and pigs killed within a two-mile radius of any confirmed outbreak in Cumbria and southern Scotland where the disease is centered. As well, animals that passed through markets where the infection has been identified, and animals they have come in contact with, are also to be killed. Three-quarters of the country has been placed off limits to walkers. The government has also more severely limited movement of people in affected areas, confining many farmers to their farms.

The impact on farmers, small businesspeople, and tourism in rural areas, which has already been devastating, is expected to worsen. Many farmers explain to reporters that in addition to the immediate impact, they are losing irreplaceable herds and breeding stock that were the result of years of work. Although farmers are being compensated by the government for animals killed, there is no aid for lost sales due to a ban on exports, the cost of rebuilding herds, or future loss of revenue.  
 
Opposition among some farmers
The government's policy has divided farmers. Officials of the National Farmers Union have backed the cull as the only way to stop the spread of the disease. Others are questioning the need for the extensive slaughter and point to a slow response by the government as partly responsible for the crisis.

"I am going to resist any attempt to kill my animals if they do not have foot and mouth," said Scottish sheep farmer Frank Thorburn, according the Sunday Times. "There is no proof that the cull will stop the disease from spreading." Farmers in Cumbria are reported to be preparing to erect barricades at their farms to prevent the Ministry of Agriculture from carrying out its mass cull.

Sheep and cattle farmer Chris Woods, from Cumbria, told the Financial Times that he understands "why the ministry is doing this, but had they got hold of the problem at the start, it may not have been necessary. We have been warning them for weeks that we had a problem but they kept on saying it was under control. It has been a disaster how it has been handled."

David Handley, a leader of Farmers For Action and coordinator of last autumn's fuel protests, told the Guardian that there "is no justification in killing them. We will go out and prevent that from happening. We will stand in front of them to stop them from being shot. There is no scientific evidence to show that this is justified. If they show us scientific evidence which justifies it then we will allow them to do it."

In response, government officials have said they need to better communicate with the farmers, but that the cull would proceed. "The policy is to identify, quarantine, and destroy the herds and remove [the disease] by stamping out," James Scudamore, Britain's chief veterinarian and point man for the government, told the press. Government officials have threatened to arrest any farmers preventing the cull.

Farmers are also urging the government to quickly burn slaughtered animals, which have sometimes been left for more than a week lying on the ground. The animals need to be burned immediately because the virus is killed by heat.  
 
Restoring disease free status
Government officials explain their policy is aimed at restoring the country's "disease-free status" as quickly as possible. "The occurrence of even a single case of foot-and-mouth disease in a previously disease-free country results in an immediate ban on an economically valuable export trade," the British Medical Journal wrote.

The United States and countries in Western Europe monitor imports of animals and meat products and do not allow any to enter that are not from a country that is certified as disease free. In addition to the impact on working farmers who bear the brunt of the crisis, the loss of disease-free status hits capitalist farm enterprises and agricultural companies that depend on the export market as well.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a virus that can be carried on people's clothes, in tires, through direct or indirect contact with sick animals, or on the wind. Although usually fatal to young livestock, most animals survive the infection. It results in serious losses to farmers, since the animals lose weight and stop producing milk. The virus rarely passes to human beings and causes cold or flu-like symptoms when it does.

The World Organization for Animal Health reports that foot-and-mouth disease is present in more than 30 countries. In certain regions of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East it is endemic because it is carried by wild animals. Argentina, which had regained disease-free status recently, has been combating a new outbreak of the virus since January. The government admitted the problem last week, prompting an immediate cutoff of exports valued at $480 million a year. Six cases of foot-and-mouth have been reported in France. The disease has not spread beyond the initial animals, according to French authorities.

The ban on all imports of animals and animal products from Britain and the European Union by the United States, Canada, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and other countries, justified on the basis of preventing the spread of the disease, also was part of the interimperialist competition and drive for markets. European Union spokesperson Beate Gminder criticized Washington's decision, calling it "not proportionate" and "excessive" because it was imposed on all European Union countries instead of just Britain and France, the only two with reported cases of the disease.

A debate over use of vaccines has come to the fore as the disease spread in Britain and threatened Europe. The Financial Times reported that agribusiness executives and European Union ministers were to consider whether or not to "abandon a 10-year-old policy preventing the inoculation of herds against the disease," and said the ministers "will need to consider the pressure building from the agricultural sector for that again to be permitted."

According to the New York Times, "Some British scientists have argued that killing huge numbers of animals is senseless because between 80 and 95 percent will survive the disease. Some argue for returning to the pre-1991 practice in some places in Europe of inoculating herds around quarantined ones."

Reuters reported that in response to a recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the Iranian government announced it will import 2.5 million doses of vaccine and distribute it free to farmers.

Since foot-and-mouth comes in seven different strains vaccination against one strain will not prevent an animal from contracting the disease from another strain. Another problem posed with vaccination under the disease-free country requirements is that most equipment used to test animals cannot distinguish between antibodies caused by the vaccine or the disease, according to the Herald Tribune, "which means that a country that resorts to vaccination loses its disease-free status." New equipment, not widely available, can detect the difference.

The British government has been stung by criticism from some big-business papers, pointing to the devastating impact that its restrictions on livestock movements are having on the tourist industry. In an attempt to scapegoat farmers, The Observer newspaper ran a front page lead story titled, "Now our tourist industry faces ruin. All because of farming." The Times carried an article that described the government's policies as "disproportionate" and "ludicrous," claiming that it was "protecting an ailing agriculture at the expense of an expanding but fragile tourist industry."

The government is also facing pressure to call off a general election tentatively set for May 3. Russell Brown, Labour member of parliament for Dumfries, explained, "If we are not on top of this in the next fortnight, I would be for pressing a delay in the election. I believe in free and fair and open elections and that includes MPs being able to get to every part of their constituency."

Paul Davies is a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union in London.
 
 
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