Just waiting

And there could be more outbreaks on the way. The latest MAFF distribution map shows confirmed cases of the disease in County Durham, and to the west in Lancashire. We know the original batch of infected pigs travelled through North Yorkshire, so those with animals along the route of the A1 can only wait.

What do we do while we wait?

We take all possible measures to protect ourselves. Some farmers are besieged on their premises. All visitors are barred and the drugs needed to treat sick animals are left at the gate. Others try to keep infection at bay with wheel washes and disinfection of clothes.

One of the major problems is the restriction of movement of stock. Even when an area has FMD-free status, regulations still (rightly) apply. An average-sized pig unit may have one, or even two, batches of pigs ready to go for bacon and pork every week. This is how pig farmers make a living.

They have only just begun to recover from the huge toll taken on their livelihood as a result of changed welfare regulations requiring whole new systems to be built for sow housing. They spent thousands of pounds converting to meet the new rules, only to lose their market to cheaper imports from the continent, where these stringent rules did not apply.

Now, their weekly income has disappeared and, as pigs exceed the weight required for the appropriate composition of fat and muscle, they lose their value, as well as needing to be fed.

Beef must reach the food chain before it is 30 months old; otherwise it must be incinerated, to prevent the hypothetical risk of BSE. Many beef animals are very close to this age when they reach the right weight to be made into steak. Prevent them from leaving the farm, and they halve in value.

And what of casualty animals? If an animal is too badly injured or too ill to travel, it would usually be put down on the farm, under veterinary advice, then be transported to the abattoir or knacker's yard. For a week we didn't know what we were supposed to do with these animals. Now, at last, we can apply for a licence to remove the carcase from the farm.

But, I think, what people dread most are the fires. I spoke to one farmer's daughter whose father lost a lot of stock in a fire five years ago. She said it had changed him. She didn't think he'd cope a second time.

There is no one there to help them cope. It is not just the monthly milk cheque, or weekly batches of pigs. It is a lifetime of building up a herd.

Dairy cows come in to the parlour twice a day to be milked. They come in the same order every time. Say, number 24 always goes at the front, number 16 always kicks, number 64 always has fantastic calves. A dairyman knows all his cows by name, and some will have been in the herd for years.

You can't create a new dairy herd from scratch. Nor can you watch the animals you work with day in, day out, in snow, mud, floods and all, burn, without it killing a large part of you too.

While those who are infected will be the only ones to be compensated, the losses to those who remain free will be substantial.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) is struggling to cope. Despite BSE and the increasing prevalence of TB, the state veterinary service has been radically restructured over the last ten years or so, leaving too few vets to deal with a crisis of these proportions. Local vets in some areas had to be enlisted to help with the BSE cohort cull and that was not even in the same league of manpower demand as this outbreak.

Appeals have gone out to all vets for help, but those who do farm work will not be able to return to work if they come in contact with foot-and-mouth, and the thought of wholesale herd slaughter fills us all with dread.

The incubation period of the virus is two weeks - this is the period during which no new outbreaks must be found to signal that the situation is under control. Each day that new cases are announced prolongs the hardship and loss of income.