The Foreign Service Journal, September 2003

36 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 3 ome would consider it an opportunity, and it was. Others, just as correctly, would call it a tragedy. It was the spring of 2001, and the United Kingdom had just diagnosed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth dis- ease — an acute, contagious disease of cattle, sheep and deer that is also transmissible to humans. Caused by a virus, FMD is characterized by fever and blisters in the mouth and around the hoofs and can be fatal. Within days of the initial diagnosis, the situation escalated into a crisis, severely straining the country’s agricultural and regulatory infrastructure. In fact, the epidemic would ultimately cost the U.K. an estimated 8 billion pounds (approximate- ly $12 billion). As a veterinarian with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I normally spend most of my time resolving animal health trade issues in Central and Eastern Europe. But I also monitor outbreaks of animal disease around the world and help prevent their introduction to the United States. So 14 other American vets and I were asked to cross the Atlantic to help British officials. The outbreak was less than a week old, and we had little idea what to expect. (For several of my col- leagues, this was their first trip overseas so they had to scramble just to get passports.) FMD was eradicated from the U.S. in 1929, so most of us had never seen a case of it outside a laboratory setting. But that was about to change in a big way. Upon arrival, we were given a short briefing and split into three different teams. Earlier budget cuts had led to decreased numbers of U.K. government vet- erinarians, so the most critical need was for us to inspect animals for signs of the disease. Accordingly, four colleagues and I traveled to the Worcester field office to work alongside the English veterinarians who were battling this horrible disease. After arriving at the train station and renting a car, we drove off, gingerly, on the “wrong” side of the road to check the farms on our list. Helping Farmers Cope At the very first farm we visited, we quickly diag- nosed FMD. Soon, I was arranging for the slaughter and burial of 4,000 sheep and 20 cattle. I helped the family with special permits so they could drive to the store and bring their children to school despite being effectively con- fined to home, and I advised them on how to prevent spread- ing the disease. The family was ostracized by some in their small rural com- munity. The children were told at school that other children couldn’t play with them because their family’s farm had FMD. They all stayed in the house while the slaughtering was done, for there was nowhere else to go. The pubs were all closed, and the social support structure of this and many other small farming communities was unraveling under the pressure of trying to prevent FMD from spreading even farther. The farmers told me that the worst part was the silence of isolation. What do you do with your time when you’ve spent the last 30 years of your life getting up and taking care of your animals, only to have every F O C U S O N F S S P E C I A L I S T S R ESPONDING TO A C RISIS B Y K AREN S LITER A GROUP OF 15 F OREIGN S ERVICE VETERINARIANS TRAVEL TO THE U.K. TO HELP FIGHT AN OUTBREAK OF FOOT - AND - MOUTH DISEASE . S