The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7169 p510-525
13 October 2001

BPC 2001 summary

The effect on the nation’s health of animal transmitted diseases

A graphic account of what it has been like to run a veterinary pharmacy business in Cumbria during the recent foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks was given to the veterinary pharmacy session by Phil Jobson (Longtown). He explained that sheep needed to be moved for several reasons, including breeding purposes. Longtown sheep market was the busiest in Europe, sometimes trading as many as 20,000 animals in a single day. These movements had facilitated a rapid spread of the highly contagious disease on the west side of Britain.

Mr Jobson said that at the height of the epidemic 12 to 14 farms were being declared infected every day in his area. The funeral pyres of burning carcasses were distressing to see as well as leaving a disagreeable stench in the air. Farmers and their families felt isolated, were fed up with media intrusion and were naturally anxious about the future. Many suffered increased asthma attacks, bouts of coughing and depression.

Mr Jobson identified three phases of the epidemic that were now being followed:

1. Clean up — removing all traces of the disease
2. Fallow period — consolidating and planning for the future
3. Recovery — active recovery; restocking

The key to pharmacy survival was an ability to be flexible and to diversify. His own pharmacy was supplying disinfectant and disposable gloves and overalls to MAFF (the former Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, now incorporated within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and this helped to offset the huge amount of lost business.

Dr Nigel Calvert (consultant in communicable diseases, North Cumbria Health Authority) compared some aspects of FMD with those of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE):

• FMD was caused by a simple picoRNA virus — the current outbreak involved the pan-Asiatic serotype O — and was susceptible to changes in pH and ultraviolet light. Dr Calvert said that although 37 cases of zoonotic transfer had been reported world-wide last year there was considerable doubt as to the accuracy of these diagnoses.
• BSE was a prion disease with a protein responsible for causing all the trouble and was extremely difficult to eradicate. It had been clearly shown to transfer to humans and the resulting tragedies had been widely reported by the media.

A veterinary surgeon’s perspective of the VMD crisis in Cumbria was given by David Black (Paragon Veterinary Group). He said that more than 90 per cent of his clients had been “culled out”, and 95 per cent of all the farm animals previously under his care had been destroyed.

Mr Black expressed dissatisfaction with the way in which MAFF had handled the emergency, accusing it of arrogance in imposing wide ranging measures without local consultation. He suggested that MAFF had not appeared to have learnt much since the last outbreak 34 years ago. Culling so many healthy animals, especially lambs, had been a terrible experience, said Mr Black, although he agreed broadly with the slaughter policy to ensure that the disease did not become endemic.

He told the audience that, although it was not usually life-threatening, foot and moth disease caused painful lesions over the mouth and tongue, making eating very difficult.

Like pharmacists, veterinarians would have to be flexible in the future, anticipating and responding to their clients’ requirements as normality slowly returned. He suggested that the two professions might usefully meet to identify areas of co-operation, particularly following the Marsh report on veterinary dispensing.
— From Dr Steven Kayne.

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