1967 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak

The 1967 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak was a major outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The only centre of the disease, in contrast to the three concentrated areas in the 2001 crisis, was on the Wales border with Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

. France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and other EU

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

countries were also affected by the crisis.

Background

There were three official inquires into the foot-and-mouth epidemics and the Government’s response in the fifty years prior to the 1967 outbreak. These occurred in 1922, 1923-1924, and 1953. In the 1950s, there was a substantial outbreak across the United Kingdom. Of the thirteen years leading up to the 1967 outbreak, there were only two years that there was no reported outbreak. During this period, foot-and-mouth was prevalent across Europe.

Outbreak

In October 1967, a farmer from Bryn Farm in the county of Shropshire

Shropshire

, concerned by the health of one of their sow

Sow

Sow may refer to:* Sowing seed* Female animals: badger, bear, pig family* Shape in which metal is cast* Type of siege engine* River Sow, England* "Sow", a poem by Sylvia Plath* Sow , the band/spoken word project comprising Anna Wildsmith-People:...

s, sought veterinary advice and the animal was found to have contracted foot-and-mouth disease

Foot-and-mouth disease

Foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids...

. Bryn Farm was immediately put into quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....

and general animal movement was banned. The virus rapidly spread to the nearby Ellis Farm. Two cows from the latter had already been sent to market, leaving the farmers in a vulnerable position. In the following months, over 2,364 outbreaks were detected in the United Kingdom. Ninety-four percent of the cases occurred in North-West Midlands and North Wales.

Reports

The Minister for Agriculture, Frederick Peart, appointed a committee to investigate the outbreak. The Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Foot-and-Mouth Disease part 1 and part 2 were published on 7 March 1969 and 3 November 1969. This report became more commonly known as the Northumberland Report. It provided recommendations to keep the disease out of the country and plans for fighting the foot-and-mouth disease.

Origins of the 1967-8 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Epidemic was published by the Chief Veterinary Officer, John Reid, on 7 February 1968. This report described the lessons learned from the outbreak.

Aftermath

After the outbreak, the United Kingdom adopted a policy to control imports from countries where foot-and-mouth is endemic. After creating this policy, the only outbreak to occur until 2001 was in 1981 on the Isle of Wight.

Spread of disease

According to John Bennett, a young farmer at the time of the crisis at Manor Farm in Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, the disease was introduced into the county "when a local farmer fed skimmed milk, bought from Shropshire where the disease was raging out of control, to his pigs".

Animal slaughter

Over the course of six months, 430,000 animals across 2300 farms were slaughtered. The average number of animals that were slaughtered in each confirmed case was around 200.

Human transmission

The 1967 crisis saw the last reported case of human foot-and-mouth disease. The victim was a farm-worker who was believed to have contracted the virus by consuming contaminated milk. The disease was not life threatening and they were able to recover within several weeks.