The National Farmers' Union has marked the first anniversary of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth, by praising the resilience of the farming community.

The NFU described the 2001 outbreaks as "catastrophic," and said that farmers had shown an amazing ability to fight back and recover.

Nationally, there were more than 2,000 confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth, and millions of animals were slaughtered as a result. Many thousands more farmers lost their stock through the contiguous cull.

In Devon, the final toll was 173 cases and 400,000 animals culled.

Keep out signs went up across Devon

The President of the NFU, Ben Gill, said that 1,000 farmers hit by the disaster have started re-stocking their farms, and another 7,000 are now eligible to begin doing the same.

He said: "The foot-and-mouth outbreak has demonstrated British farmers' amazing resilience and ability to fight back from what has been a catastrophic situation.

"That more than 1,000 farmers have found the will to try to resurrect their businesses in some shape or form is testament to this determination."

He said that for many farmers, the past 12 months had been a disaster: "It has been a year of unparalleled suffering in the farming community but also of unparalleled courage and spirit.

"Thankfully, we are looking forward to a very different spring from the appalling one we went through last year.

"We must now ensure that we see this through to the very end. There is a need for continued caution through the lambing period. Once this hurdle has been cleared, farmers will expect that the last remaining controls in place are reviewed and removed as soon as possible."

Ben Gill

The main thing now, he said, was to do everything possible to prevent a similar outbreak: "Our goal now is to stop this from ever happening again, by ensuring that the country's controls to prevent illegal imports are brought up to scratch.

"It is a travesty that, one year on, the situation has not markedly improved. Every lesson that needs to be learned about how to prevent and fight such awful diseases in the future must be engraved into the minds of the industry and Government," he said.

Defra has started to put up posters at airports and ports, to make the public aware about the importation of food and drink.

But Mr Gill said that did not go far enough: "Defra has taken months to reach this stage and there is still much more to be done.

"We are pleased that Government has recognised the strength of concern about illegal imports and is at last working to put it right.

"These posters will help raise awareness, but farmers will not be satisfied until there is clear evidence the situation is improving."

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