Protecting Ireland from Covid-19: learn the lessons from foot-and-mouth disease

Wind back the clock 19 years to 2001 and the island of Ireland was again in lockdown. This time it was in response to the rampant spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) across the British countryside.

The first case was detected on 19 February in an Essex abattoir.

I remember it well, having just moved into livestock procurement in a beef processing factory in the UK that same day. What followed in the weeks afterwards was utter chaos and nothing that could even be remotely described as a coordinated response.

It was only when politicians handed responsibility for the control and eradication of the disease over to the British army that the country started to get to grips with the problem.

But the delayed response proved costly.

The rampant spread of the disease saw over 6m cattle and sheep destroyed and the economy take an £8bn hit.

The images of burning carcases lighting the night sky remains as clear in many farmers’ minds today as 19 years ago.

The island of Ireland did not escape.

An outbreak of the disease in Northern Ireland on 28 February 2001 saw the country go into lockdown. Even though at that time the Republic of Ireland remained FMD-free, St Patrick’s Day parades were cancelled across the country as a precaution.

It was not until 22 March that the first case of the disease was detected south of the border in Co Louth.

The response was swift and an aggressive slaughter policy was initiated that saw the culling of 13,000 sheep and 3,000 cattle.

In less than a month the disease had been eradicated and trade restrictions lifted. Overall, just five cases of FMD were reported on the island of Ireland - four in Northern Ireland and just the one isolated case south of the border.

In comparison, the official figure of confirmed FMD cases across Britain in the 2001 outbreak was almost 2,000.

Mistakes

So what relevance has the 2001 FMD outbreak to the situation we find ourselves in today?

In relation to Britain, to say anything more than mistakes have been made in the past in how that country has responded to a national disease emergency would be simply jumping on what is now a popular bandwagon.

The delayed response by the British government to ban large gatherings and a refusal to close down schools in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19 is attracting widespread criticism. But only time will tell which approach was right.

Ultimately the real value of a history lesson on the 2001 FMD outbreak is for island of Ireland.

Many of the plaudits for managing to curtail the spread of the disease to just five cases on the island lay with the then Irish and Northern Irish agriculture ministers, Joe Walsh and Brid Rodgers, who of course had the tacit support of Ian Paisley, chair of the Agriculture Committee.

Both jurisdictions worked hand-in-glove in adopting an all-island response to tackling the spread of the disease.

Of course this was facilitated by what was a well-established all-island approach to animal and plant health, with ongoing engagement between the respective agricultural departments.

Public health crisis

It is unfortunate that as the island attempts to protect its citizens from what has been described as one of the most serious public health crises in decades, the same collaborative approach that proved successful in 2001 cannot be replicated.

Both footage and reports coming from the North/South Ministerial Council held yesterday portrayed anything but an all-island approach. The fact that Stormont was given no prior notice of the decision by the Irish Government to close schools last Thursday exposed the lack of communication between the various health departments, and no doubt added a level of tension when the ministerial council met on Saturday.

Anyone hoping for decisive action to stem from the meeting of leaders on both sides of border was left disappointed – not only was there no hiding the north-south division, but the internal division between NI leaders was exposed.

At a time when citizens on the island require strong and decisive leadership, First Minster Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minster Michelle O’Neill opted to publicly disagree on how best to proceed.

History lessons

The lessons of history expose the urgent need for politicians on both sides of the border to bridge the divide if we are to be successful in limiting the impact of COVID-19 on our society.

The island of Ireland has stood up to the threat of a highly virulent disease before and won.

It can win again, but only by working together as one in the same way it did 19 years ago.