Kendall tells inquiry Government FMD response was ‘disproportionate’

NFU President Peter Kendall has told the Anderson Inquiry into the handling of last year's foot-and-mouth outbreak that the Government's response was 'disproportionate'.

He said the 2007 outbreak was handled 'much better' than the one in 2001. "There were a number of factors that made it, objectively, a much easier incident to deal with. It was detected earlier, there had been few animal movements, and it was, therefore, localised."

But he added "In the 2001 outbreak, it was evident the authorities had, at least in the initial period, done too little.

"This time the question must be asked whether the authorities did too much. An outbreak in which there were only eight infected premises, confined to a small area in Surrey, led to prolonged restrictions throughout the country with a cost to farmers of more than £100m and a cost to the public purse of £47m. This seems disproportionate."

"We think there could be a better way. It is right to shut down the whole country immediately there is an outbreak. But if we had an effective computerised animal tracing system, we could instantly see where animals from the infected area had moved to and restrictions could be placed there while the rest of the country could be rapidly freed up.

"Sadly we don't have an effective system at the moment."