Foot and Mouth Disease Plagues Rural Areas of England

    Foot and mouth disease in livestock is devastating rural areas of England, reports Rev. Rosie Radcliffe, who serves the Church of England as Assistant Priest, in Cumbria, in the United Kingdom. In England alone, there are nearly 2,000 official cases of Foot and Mouth disease. But for every single official case, there are three or more surrounding farms that succumb to being "slaughtered down" in order to attempt to halt the spread of the disease. Thus, probably more than 10,000 farms have been involved in the mass cull of millions of heads of livestock. The actual number of animals which have died to date (August 4, 2001) in this epidemic from slaughter are 3,647,000. There are 33,000 awaiting it, and 16,000 carcasses have yet to be disposed of.

     Excerpts from Rev. Rosie Radcliffe's diary of August 2001 and March/April 2001 follow. To read more, search for "BBC online foot and mouth diary" on the Yahoo web site at http://www.yahoo.com
Click on the BBC Online - Radio Cumbria reference

    Rev. Radcliffe and her husband, Jeff, also a priest, appreciate the prayers from around the world and the e-mail notes of encouragement they have received. They can be reached via e-mail at: radcliffes@zoom.co.uk

    Cumbria has more cases of foot and mouth disease that anywhere else. That has meant that much of their livestock had to be slaughtered, causing severe economic distress to farmers. Tourism is also sharply down, which has affected other small businesses supported by tourist trade. The Rural Chaplains Association is asking people to keep in their prayers those most affected by foot and mouth disease, and also for farmer and ranchers everywhere these days.

    Rev. Radcliffe reports that animals lost to foot and mouth disease run into millions. "A number of formerly infected counties have now been declared "clean', but here in my home area...a persistent hotspot of infection continues to wreak havoc...Talk of "recovery" is premature here - we are just living from day to day."

    "Ours are the forgotten farmers -- some have so far escaped the disease but can neither move nor sell their animals because of the continuing restrictions on what has recently been designed a "Special Biosecurity Area". Some families are still holed up in fortress farms, as they have been for the past six months, with no money coming in. The stress on them is unimaginable as they play a desperate waiting game, with only the telephone or Internet as a lifeline. Many are close to the breaking point. The Government does not pay for the huge quantities of anti-viral disinfectant used to hold the plague at bay, nor compensate for loss of income because of restrictions." Farmers have spent about 100,000 UK pounds currency on average for disinfectant.

    "Last week, I was visiting in one of the villages - a new case on the outskirts had upset the whole community. A group of lorries carrying tanks drew up and some green-suited figures got out and comprehensively doused one of their number in disinfectant. They then set off across the fields towards a grazing group of cows. Suddenly my heart was in my mouth as I realised what I was seeing. Then another lorry arrived and unloaded a cattle crush - a metal frame to hold an animal immobile - and this was wheeled off down the field....Gunshots across the field a couple of hours later confirmed my worst fears. 

    One of the local family doctors recently brought a serious worry to my attention. His concern is that, even if new cases of infection stop very soon (not looking likely, at least round here), the Autumn is going to be a very difficult time indeed. He is already seeing people who are stressed to their limits and can't take much more. For many in the agricultural community, the money they've been living on for the past months will simply run out, and the same must be true for folks whose living depends on tourism. My doctor friend predicts that it's going to be a very hard winter -- and he isn't talking about the weather."

    "You might think that you'd become numb after a time, but you never get used to it. A new case can never be just another statistic. Traveling down the A6 a couple of weeks ago, I saw the tell-tale cluster of vehicles at a farm gate near Shap. It looked as if the slaughtermen might be in, because there were still animals in one of the fields, and the cars weren't the usual veterinary 4-wheel drives, but an ordinary assortment. No matter how many times I've seen this, my stomach still gives a lurch at the realisation that someone else has gone down; somehow it's personal every time. On the return journey two hours later, the fields were empty, and a convoy of wagons waited at the roadside to take the carcasses out. A group of white-suited figures stood at the farm gate, with a man in the centre who must have been the benighted farmer. I could literally have wept for him -- it breaks my heart every time.

    "It isn't over yet, indeed there's no end in sight, and we are facing more weeks, perhaps months of unremitting anxiety. ...This first year of the "true" ,millennium start out in such hope; who could have imagined how quickly it would turn into an "annus horribilus?" We have traveled a rocky road from that February day when we first heard the news of a case of foot and mouth disease. The warp and weft of country life have since been broken and if it doesn't end soon, I wonder how much of our way of life will survive?

From March/April 2001), Rev. Radcliffe wrote:

    "It isn't over yet; some believe it has only just begun and that much worse is to come. None of us can look far ahead, but we know it will certainly be months before we can really see a future, and perhaps years before the countryside recovers from this blow. Last Sunday I was reading my favourite psalm, which seems to capture the waste and tragedy and to be particularly poignant and apposite...

    'For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinion, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.' Psalm 91:3-6

    "The pestilence is already here, the enemy running rampant across our fields, but the God who cares for everything He has made is with us, with His help we can come through this and there will be Resurrection," Rev. Radcliffe concludes.