'Flames and fear on the farms': Controlling foot and mouth disease in Britain, 1892-2001

Historical Research

Volumn 77, Issue 198, 2004, Pages 520-542

  Woods, Abigail ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 34548146868     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2004.00221.x     Document Type: Article

References (157)

1. This figure includes animals slaughtered under the government's 'welfare scheme', which was intended to relieve the suffering of animals trapped in unsuitable accommodation by livestock movement restrictions ('10 million animals were slaughtered in FMD cull', Daily Telegraph, 23 Jan. 2002 (5 March 2004))
2. I. Anderson, FMD 2001: Lessons to be Learned Enquiry Report (2002)
3. Anderson; National Audit Office, Report upon the 2001 FMD Outbreak (2002)
4. The Cumbria FMD Inquiry Report (Carlisle, 2002)
5. Crisis and Opportunity: Devon Foot and Mouth Inquiry 2001 (Tiverton, 2002)
6. Royal Society, Infectious Diseases in Livestock (2002)
7. European Parliament, Report on Measures to Control Foot and Mouth Disease in the European Union in 2001 (2002) (4 March 2004)
8. P. Midmore, 'The 2001 foot and mouth outbreak: economic arguments against an extended cull' (2001) (4 March 2004)
9. D. Campbell and R. Lee, '"Carnage by computer": the blackboard economics of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic', Social and Legal Studies, xii (2003), 425-59
10. P. Sutmoller and others, 'Control and eradication of foot-and-mouth disease', Virus Research, xci (2003), 101-44
11. B. Mepham, 'Foot and mouth disease and British agriculture: ethics in a crisis', Jour. Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, xiv (2001), 342-3
12. M. Mort and others, 'The health and social consequences of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic in north Cumbria' (2003) (4 March 2004)
13. Animal Health, a Centenary, 1865-1965 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Animal Health Division, 1965) (hereafter Animal Health), pp. 134-51
14. Animal Health; F. Floud, The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (1927), pp. 64-75
15. 'FMD', Veterinary Record, 4 March 1976, pp. 184-5
16. A. Woods, 'The construction of an animal plague: foot and mouth disease in 19th-century Britain', Social History of Medicine, xvii (2004), 23-39
17. Examples include C. E. Rosenberg, 'Framing disease' and 'Explaining epidemics', in C. E. Rosenberg, Explaining Epidemics and Other Studies in the History of Medicine (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 293-318
18. A. Hardy, The Epidemic Streets: Infectious Disease and the Rise of Preventive Medicine, 1856-1900 (Oxford, 1993)
19. P. Baldwin, Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830-1930 (Cambridge, 1999)
20. L. Bryder, '"We shall not find salvation in inoculation": BCG vaccination in Scandinavia, Britain and the USA, 1921-60', Social Science and Medicine, xlix (1999), 1157-67
21. G. Mooney, 'Public health versus private practice: the contested development of compulsory infectious disease notification in late-19th century Britain', Bull. Hist. Medicine, lxxiii (1999), 238-67
22. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (formerly the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries) was formed in 1919. In 1955, it merged with the Ministry of Food to become M.A.F.F
23. Much of this article is drawn from A. Woods, 'Foot and mouth disease in 20th century Britain: science, policy and the veterinary profession' (unpublished University of Manchester Ph.D. thesis, 2001)
24. O. Radostits and others, Veterinary Medicine: a Textbook of the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Goats and Horses (8th edn., 1994), pp. 965-71
25. Woods, 'Construction of an animal plague'
26. Annual Report of Proceedings under the Diseases of Animals Acts, 1922, 1923 and 1924 (1923-5)
27. The National Archives of the U.K.: Public Record Office, MAF 35/162, 167, Stockman evidence to 1922 and 1924 committees of enquiry into F.M.D
28. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/159, 160, 162, 165, witness evidence to 1922 and 1924 committees of enquiry into F.M.D; Cheshire Observer and Crewe Chronicle, Dec. 1923-Jan. 1924, passim
29. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/164, M.A.F. leaflet, 'Advice to farmers', 31 Dec. 1923
30. M.A.F. statements in The Times, 30 Jan. 1922, p. 10, 22 Feb. 1922. p. 9 and 5 Nov. 1923, p. 21
31. 'Warning to stock owners', The Times, 29 Sept. 1923, p. 7
32. 'FMD: visit of Sir Stuart Stockman', Crewe Chronicle, 10 Nov. 1923, p. 7
33. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/160, official evidence to 1922 committee of enquiry
34. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/164, 165, Stockman evidence to 1924 committee of enquiry
35. 'Slaughter: Central and Associated Chambers of Agriculture', The Times, 1 Feb. 1922, p. 7
36. 'NFU resolutions', The Times, 10 Jan. 1924, p. 14
37. University of Reading, Rural History Centre, Royal Agricultural Society council minutes, 12 Dec. 1923
38. For details of the N.F.U.'s historical relationship with M.A.F.(F.), see P. Self and H. Storing, The State and the Farmer (Berkeley, Calif., 1963)
39. G. Cox, P. Lowe and M. Winter, 'The origins and early development of the NFU', Agricultural History Rev., xxxix (1991), 30-47
40. M. Smith, The Politics of Agricultural Support in Britain (Aldershot, 1990)
41. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/159, 160, 162, 165, witness evidence to 1922 and 1924 committees of enquiry into F.M.D
42. Cheshire Observer and Crewe Chronicle, Dec. 1923-Jan. 1924, passim
43. At the height of the 1923-4 epidemic, Harry German, president of the N.F.U. livestock committee reportedly told branches 'not to send up resolutions to HQ advocating that the government should be asked to stop their policy of slaughtering' (Daily Mail, 17 Dec. 1923, p. 9)
44. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/162, pp. 98, 148, verbatim report of 1922 committee
45. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/165, day 2, pp. 8-9, Stockman evidence to 1924 committee of enquiry into F.M.D.
46. Report of the 1922 Departmental Committee on F.M.D. [Cmd. 1784], H.C. (1923), ii. 579
47. Report of the 1924 Departmental Committee on F.M.D. [Cmd. 2350], H.C. (1924-5), xiii. 225
48. 'Slaughter: NFU statement', The Times, 15 Apr. 1926, p. 16
49. 'Responsibility of the stock owner', The Times, 9 Jan. 1928, p. 20
50. 'Stanley Baldwin - speech', The Times, 24 May 1929, p. 8
51. 'Report, Agricultural Ministry', The Times, 1 Aug. 1930, p. 6
52. 'Vindication of Britain's slaughter measures', Daily Mail, 9 Nov. 1937, p. 20
53. 'Mr T Williams, speech', The Times, 12 Mar. 1941, p. 2
54. Baldwin discusses the influence of geography upon disease control policies
55. Pirbright, Animal Virus Research Institute (hereafter A.V.R.I.), F.M.D. research committee paper 411, 1939/40, H. Skinner, 'Passive immunisation against FMD'
56. H. P. Schmiedebach, 'The Prussian state and microbiological research', in 100 Years of Virology: the Birth and Growth of a Discipline, ed. C. Calisher and M. Horzineck (Austria, 1999), pp. 9-24
57. W. Wittmann, 'The legacy of Friedrich Loeffler', in Calisher and Horzineck, pp. 25-42
58. Report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into FMD [Cd. 7270], H. C. (1914), xii. 139
59. A.V.R.I., F.M.D. research committee paper 2, 1924, 'Report on the 1920 FMD committee'
60. T.N.A.: P.R.O., FD 1/4364, Fletcher correspondence, Jan. 1922
61. 'FMD', British Medical Jour., 19 Jan. 1924, p. 121
62. Editorial, 'Investigation into FMD', The Lancet, 8 March 1924, pp. 504-5
63. letter of Drs. Peyton, Grace and Young, The Times, 7 Jan. 1924, p. 18
64. 'Obituary, Sir W. M. Fletcher, 1873-1933', Royal Society Obituary Notices of Fellows, i (1932-5), 153-63
65. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/165, Stockman evidence to 1924 committee of enquiry into F.M.D.; T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/217, Stockman correspondence with Sir W. Leishman, 7 Jan., 8 Feb. 1924
66. The U.S.A. did not begin F.M.D. research until 1954, when a specialist laboratory opened on Plum Island. This move followed F.M.D. outbreaks in neighbouring Canada and Mexico. Another likely motivating factor was the threat of hostile nations employing F.M.D. as a biological weapon (M. Machado, Aftosa: a Historical Survey of Foot and Mouth Disease and Inter-American Relations (Albany, N.J., 1969))
67. In Australia, there was little interest in F.M.D. research until the later 20th century (P. Scott, 'Fevers and counterweights: a laboratory that failed to raise the world', Social Studies of Science, xxi (1991), 7-35)
68. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/217, Cabinet committee minutes and Sir W. Leishman's report, 1923-4
69. 'FMD', The Times, 29 Feb. 1924, p. 7
70. A.V.R.I., minutes of F.M.D. research committee meetings, 1924-6
71. Annual Report of Proceedings under the Diseases of Animals Acts: Report of the CVO, 1925 (1926), p. 17
72. Report of the CVO, 1928 (1929), p. 17
73. Report of the CVO, 1932 (1933), pp. 34-5
74. Ist-5th Progress Reports of the FMD Research Committee (1925-37)
75. 'Serum treatment in connection with FMD', Veterinary Record, 6 Dec. 1930, p. 1126
76. Annual Report of Proceedings under the Diseases of Animals Acts: Report of the CVO, 1931 (1932), p. 26
77. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/226, Kelland to H. Dale, Dec. 1932
78. A.V.R.I., F.M.D. research committee meeting 56-61 (2 Feb. 1931-21 July 1931)
79. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/226, serum treatment: correspondence and memos, 1930-3
80. A.V.R.I., F.M.D. research committee meeting 15-87 (8 Dec. 1925-8 May 1934)
81. interview given by H. Skinner, 7 March 2000
82. Ist-5th Progress Reports of the F.M.D. Research Committee (1925-37)
83. A.V.R.I., F.M.D. research committee paper 351 (2 June 1938) and 353 (30 June 1938)
84. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/231, report of sub-committee on biological warfare, March 1937
85. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/231, Cabot memorandum, Apr. 1937, note by market division, May 1937
86. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 250/126, Cabot paper, 13 Nov. 1939
87. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/231, Cabot correspondence, May 1939
88. T.N.A., P.R.O., MAF 250/126, memorandum, 'FMD: preparation of serum'
89. A.V.R.I., F.M.D. research committee meeting 134 (31 Oct. 1939)
90. German sources suggest that the secret service was indeed planning to attack Britain with the F.M.D. virus (The Times, 12 March 2001, p. 6)
91. M. Dando, Biological Warfare in the 21st Century: Biotechnology and the Proliferation of Biological Weapons (1994), p. 80
92. B. Balmer, 'The drift of biological weapons policy in the UK, 1945-65', Jour. Strategic Studies, xx (1997), 115-45, at pp. 117-18
93. G. Carter and B. Balmer, 'Chemical and biological warfare and defence, 1945-90', in Cold War Hot Science: Applied Research in Britain's Defence Laboratories, 1945-90, ed. R. Bud and P. Gummett (Amsterdam, 1999), pp. 311-18
94. T.N.A.: P.R.O., DEFE 10/30, research on F.M.D., DRP/P (51) 62, 23 Aug. 1951
95. T.N.A.: P.R.O., WO 195/12458, research on F.M.D., 1951
96. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 250/163, F.M.D. research committee, proposals for special virus research, 1951-2
97. A.V.R.I., I. Galloway, 'Draft report on research progress, 1937-52'
98. Sir W. Henderson, A Personal History of the Testing of FMD Vaccines in Cattle (Coventry, 1985)
99. Report of the Departmental Committee on FMD, 1952-4 [Cmd. 9214], pp. 135-9, H.C. (1953-4), xiii. 561
100. Animal Health Services Report, 1952 (1953)
101. Letter from Montevideo, Daily Telegraph, March 1952
102. 'Report from Denmark', Daily Telegraph, 30 June 1952
103. W. D. Thomas, 'Danish cattle policy', Daily Telegraph, June 1952 (all from A.V.R.I., H. Skinner collection of newspaper clippings)
104. Letter of J. T. Davies, The Times, 5 May 1952, p. 7
105. 'FMD: France', The Times, 5 Sept. 1952, p. 5
106. T.N.A.: P.R.O., CAB 124/ 1562, Chapman Pincher, 'FMD', Daily Express, 13 Nov. 1952
107. A.V.R.I., H. Skinner collection, Sunday Express, 15 June 1952
108. Above three paragraphs drawn from A.V.R.I., H. Skinner collection
109. A.V.R.I., 'Progress report, 1944-5'
110. A.V.R.I., F.M.D. research committee meeting (25 March 1946)
111. A.V.R.I., H. Skinner, 'The British contribution to research on FMD prior to 1950', sect. 10
112. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/866, George Villiers, 'The case for inoculation as an aid to the fight against FMD', 1952
113. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/866, Galloway correspondence, 26 June 1952
114. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 387/18, Gowers committee, 17th meeting, 4 Feb. 1953
115. T.N.A.: P.RO., MAF 387/28, Gowers committee, 26th and 27th meetings, Sept. 1953
116. Report of the Departmental Committee on FMD, 1952-4, pp. 21-35, 51
117. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/872, submission to the minister, 14 March 1955
118. M.A.F. press release, The Times, 29 July 1954, p. 4
119. Animal Health Services Report, 1953 and 1954 (1954, 1955)
120. Animal Health Services Report, 1967 and 1968 (1968, 1969)
121. For more information on the 1967-8 epidemic, see H. Hughes and J. Jones, Plague on the Cheshire Plain (1969)
122. R. Whitlock, The Great Cattle Plague: an Account of the Foot-and-Mouth Epidemic of 1967-8 (1969)
123. Animal Health Services Report, 1961-5 (1962-6)
124. 'FMD notes', The Times, 17 Sept. 1956, p. 2
125. 'Slaughter control of FMD', The Times, 12 Dec. 1960, p. 5
126. 'Vaccination wrong for Britain', The Times, 3 Feb. 1961, p. 6
127. 'Disease threat to Europe's farms', The Times, 17 July 1962, p. 10
128. 'F&M poses imports problem', The Times, 21 Feb 1966, p. 6
129. Examples drawn from Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., Commons, dccliii-dcclvi, passim
130. and Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Chester Chronicle, 20 Nov.-23 Dec. 1967, passim
131. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/492, minutes of Northumberland committee, 5 June 1968
132. Wellcome Witnesses to 20th Century Medicine, xviii: Foot and Mouth Disease - the 1967 Outbreak and its Aftermath, ed. D. Christie, L. Reynolds and E, Tansey (2003), p. 52
133. 'Farm plague battle is stepped up'. Daily Mail, 27 Nov. 1967, p. 1
134. Peart written answer to parliamentary question, Hansard, 5, Commons, dcclv (28 Nov, 1967), cols, 70-1
135. 'Ministry has no plans to vaccinate', Guardian. 3 Dec. 1967, p. 14
136. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/461. 'Memo: To RVOs. DVOs and DEOs concerned', Dec. 1967
137. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/479/1, F.M.D. area vaccination scheme, Dec. 1967
138. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/505/1, G. Amos, 'Personal views for oral hearing of the Northumberland committee'. 9 Apr. 1968
139. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into FMD (Northumberland Committee): Part One [Cmd. 3999]. H.C. (1968-9), xxx. 867
140. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/479/1, Reid to Carnochan, 3 Oct. 1969
141. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/479/2, 'FMD - ring vaccination contingency plan', Oct. 1969
142. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 287/479/1, 2, correspondence and memoranda, 1969-70
143. Christie, Reynolds and Tansey, pp. 67-8
144. T.N.A.: P.R.O., MAF 35/868, 35/869, 252/48
145. W. H. Rees, 'Foot and mouth disease: its control and eradication, the European story' (unpublished MS., date unknown)
146. Report from the Commission on the Control of FMD (Brussels, 1989)
147. 'OIE official "disease-free" status' (5 March 2004)
148. 'Europe awaits crucial findings', Guardian, 1 March 2001, p. 8
149. Y. Leborban, 'Prevention measures against FMD in Europe in recent years', Vaccine, xvii (1999), 1758-9
150. Report of the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare, Strategy for Emergency Vaccination against Foot and Mouth Disease (1999) (5 March 2004)
151. Anderson, pp. 32-4
152. Daily Telegraph, 26 Feb. 2001, p. 1
153. Anderson, passim
154. See above, n. 3
155. Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan (2003) (5 March 2004)
156. National Foot and Mouth Group, 'Response to DEFRA's contingency plan' (2003) (5 March 2004)
157. D.Campbell and R. Lee, 'The power to panic: the Animal Health Act 2002', Public Law, (2003), 382-96, at p. 383