Government foot-and-mouth 'panic'

Photographs of huge pyres of burning carcasses dented Britain's image

LONDON, England -- Serious mistakes were made in the handling of the 2001 foot- and-mouth epidemic, the UK government has admitted as an official report was published accused it of panicking.

An investigation led by Dr Iain Anderson concluded that within a month of the outbreak a "sense of panic appeared" in government and decision-making became "haphazard and messy."

The report is the last of three of independent inquiries on the eight-month crisis that led to the slaughter of millions of animals, crippled the meat and livestock trade, devastated Britain's tourist industry and forced Prime Minister Tony Blair to delay a general election.

Images of giant piles of smouldering dead cattle, strewn across the countryside, hurt Britain's reputation across the globe.

The "Lessons to be Learned" inquiry report, published on Monday, highlighted "gaps" in the plan designed to combat an outbreak and said there was "limited" knowledge of farming practices which contributed to the spread of the disease.

EXTRA INFORMATION • In depth: UK's foot-and-mouth crisis

It said the impact of the crisis on tourism and the rural economy was not initially recognised and "large parts of the farming and wider rural community became mistrustful of government."

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett admitted to parliament that ministers were slow to react.

"I accept, though it is with hindsight, that this is so," Beckett said. But she added that the 2001 epidemic had been one of the worst the world had seen.

She denied there had been a "sense of panic." Although she conceded Dr. Anderson had used those words, she added: "I was slightly surprised to hear that because that was not my impression. It has been not confirmed to me by any of the observations I've heard from people at a whole range of levels at dealing with the crisis."

The minister said Dr. Anderson meant that "on the ground... as it became apparent what the scope of the disease was, there were considerable difficulties and indeed there were some problems."

She also admitted that the government would have called the army in earlier to clear what became a backlog in the massive slaughter if it had grasped the full picture faster.

The report by Anderson -- a former adviser to Blair -- recommended developing a national strategy for animal health and disease control, and warned against burning animals on mass pyres which raised public outrage.

Four million animals were slaughtered during Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak

It also suggested vaccination be considered as part of a plan to combat future outbreaks, though not for healthy animals.

The army should be called in and slaughtering should proceed as quickly as possible, it added.

Beckett said the government would look to vaccinate cattle in future, a measure opposed by British farmers last year.

"Any emergency vaccination policy should in future not just be 'vaccinate to kill' but ideally 'vaccinate to live'," she said.

Her predecessor, Nick Brown, came in for heavy criticism from the report, which said the government had failed to learn key lessons from previous foot-and-mouth epidemics.

"The first responses to the early cases were not fast enough or effectively co-ordinated," it said. "The paramount importance of speed and especially the rapid slaughter of infected animals was not given overriding priority early on."

Beckett said a national ban on livestock movements would in future apply as soon as the first case of the disease was confirmed.

National Union of Farmers president Ben Gill, who gave evidence on a number of issues covered by the report, blamed "bureaucracy" for "clouding" the speed of the military response.

"The key issues that we brought up were proper contingency planning, proper border protection and a properly funded research project," he said.

"They need to deliver the assurances that society so clearly needs in terms of alternative control measures instead of slaughtering so many animals."

Anderson told the BBC on Monday: "In all new epidemics, effective action taken very early can have disproportionately large effects in reducing the severity or size of the epidemic.

"There were some crucial delays at the beginning, and there was a slight delay in bringing in the Ministry of Defence to deal with the logistics of culling."