The Spectator’s notes | 11 August 2007

We are paying now for the lack of a single, comprehensive inquiry into the great foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001. We were unprepared. Although foot-and-mouth information notices were first posted on 4 July, there was confusion when the Surrey outbreak was confirmed on Friday afternoon last week. People did not know how to operate the national ban on the movement of livestock. Some environmental health offices, closed for the weekend, did not open. The police had instructions to stop all movements (sensible) and impound all livestock that were moving (impossible). No one seemed to know about the EU directive on immediate ring vaccination. Once upon a time, though, there was a proper inquiry. After the previous big outbreak, which began on a farm at Nantmawr, near Oswestry on 25 October 1967, the Northumberland report identified the source, reviewed the handling and made recommendations. It emphasised the fact that the virus is carried through the air, and therefore a breathing, infected cow is deadly — slaughter should take place straightaway. Footpaths and roads should be closed at once. Because of the risk in the air, burial, Northumberland said, was much safer than burning. The report calculated that it takes four hours to dig a grave big enough for a hundred cattle: slaughter and burial could and should be carried out within 24 hours of diagnosis. In 2001, delay meant that the wind carried the disease, rendering the vast, horrifying contiguous cull largely ineffective since more than a quarter of outbreaks took place more than three kilometres from the source. This time, the slaughter waited a whole day, and burial was not allowed. The carcases were taken off on a lorry to Somerset, risking further spread. Footpaths were not closed. A notable piece of stupidity was the decision by the television channels to fly a helicopter above the infected cattle.