2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak

This set out procedures, such as protection and "surveillance zones", the confirmation of diagnosis by laboratory testing and that actions had to be consulted with the EC and its Standing Veterinary Committee.

The first case of the disease to be detected was at Cheale Meats abattoir in Little Warley, Essex on 19 February 2001, in pigs from Buckinghamshire and the Isle of Wight.

Over the next four days, several more cases were announced in Essex, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) imposed movement restrictions on livestock in and out of eight kilometres around the infected area.

On 21 February, the European Commission announced a blanket ban on the export of any meat, milk products, or livestock from the UK.

[2] On 23 February, a case was confirmed in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, from the same location as the pig in the first case; this farm was later confirmed as the source of the outbreak, with the owner, Bobby Waugh of Pallion, found guilty of having failed to inform the authorities of a notifiable disease and banned from keeping farm animals for 15 years.

The policy of MAFF was that where affected carcasses from the cull could not be disposed on site, they would have to be taken to a rendering plant in Widnes; as such, the corpses of infected animals were taken through disease-free areas.

David King was appointed to approach MAFF policy in a scientific manner, alongside Roy M. Anderson, an epidemiologist who had been modelling human diseases at Imperial College and was on the committee concerned with BSE.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) downgraded to "high risk" the last area to be denoted "infected" on 29 November.

Largely in response to the perceived failure of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to respond to the outbreak quickly and effectively enough, the ministry was merged with elements of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to form the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Several cases of foot and mouth were reported in Ireland and mainland Europe, following unknowing transportation of infected animals from the UK.

The 2001 Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, or Irish Dance World Championships, was cancelled this year due to these measures.

The consensus is that the FMD virus came from infected or contaminated meat that was part of the swill being fed to pigs at Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall.

[11] In June 2004, Defra held a simulation exercise in five areas around the UK to test new procedures to be employed in the event of a future outbreak.

This was in response to findings that showed that in 2001, MAFF had failed to respond quickly enough to stop the high volume of animal movements coming out of the UK's livestock markets; without disease testing, infected animals were being quickly moved throughout the British Isles facilitating the spread of the FMD virus.

In August 2001 therefore, in an effort to prevent this failure to learn from history from happening again, HM Government launched three inquiries into various aspects of the crisis.

Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, had ruled out a public inquiry on the grounds that it would be too costly and take too long.

An Independent Inquiry into Foot and Mouth Disease in Scotland initiated by the Royal Society of Edinburgh was chaired by Professor Ian Cunningham.

The delay in imposing a ban of all movements until the third day after confirmation, the use of less than transparent modelling techniques and the failure to call on more than a fraction of the considerable relevant scientific expertise available in Scotland were criticised.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) should have a clear role in contingency planning and management of any future emergency.

The use of a vaccine to halt the spread of the disease was repeatedly considered during the outbreak, but the government decided not to use it after pressure from the National Farmers Union.

[14] Concentrating on Cumbria as the area that was worst hit by the epidemic, data has been collected via interviews, focus groups and individual diaries to document the consequences that the FMD outbreak had on people's lives.

In 2008, a book based on this study was published, titled Animal Disease and Human Trauma, emotional geographies of disaster.