The deadly threat of
another outbreak of the killer foot and mouth
disease still hangs over every
farmer in the country, it was
claimed
yesterday.
The grim warning
came from a North Devon farmer who lost his entire
herd in the foot and mouth
crisis after it erupted in 2001.
Shebbear
farmer Ted Haste lost 189 pedigree cattle in the outbreak and
is still
battling two years on for compensation for £30,000 worth of damage
he said
was caused on his farm by those who carried out the
cull.
Speaking as a new report into
handling of the outbreak revealed
"inexcusable" errors, Mr Haste said it gave
him "no comfort whatsoever"
about the handling of future
incidents.
He said: "Illegally imported
meat is still coming in and while it
does, the threat of another outbreak is
hanging over every farmer in
the
country."
Other North Devon critics
said the new report by the Commons Public
Accounts Committee failed to show
the way forward or any lessons learned.
Bill Harper, who heads Holsworthy's Harpers Home Mix Animal Feed, was
on the
key stakeholders group which met regularly throughout the outbreak,
to
exchange information. He said the meetings had simply petered out. He
added:
"This report contains nothing about what the next steps should be. We
need
information about disease control."
Ron
Dawson, of the Meeth-based Ash Moor pit protest group, said: "No
lessons have
been learned."
James Morrish who heads the
South West Rural Stress Information
Network, said he was hugely disappointed
to see just two paragraphs in the
new report regarding illegal meat
imports.
He added: "I was so concerned
that I rang Heathrow to ask about the
situation and was put through to 16
different people and one even told me
'foot and mouth was over two years
ago'."
Farmer Mr Haste, added he thought
DEFRA had damaged relations so badly
with farmers that they would fail to
receive co-operation in the case of
another
outbreak.
North Devon was one of the areas
hardest hit by foot and mouth
disease.Tens of thousands of animals were
slaughtered and many farmers faced
financial
ruin.
The huge funeral pyres which were
lit to dispose of the carcasses were
an ugly blot on the landscape and only
now is the tourism industry
recovering from the effects of the
outbreak.