It is two years this week since the start of the most serious outbreak of foot and mouth disease the world has ever seen.

I well remember arriving home late one night and looking at Ceefax to find out what was new, and there was an announcement of two suspected cases in pigs in Essex.

It was easy to conclude there had been some mistake, and to go to bed. The next days made it clear that there had been no mistake.

The dreadful events of the next months are too recent to need revisiting. The damage done to an already struggling countryside was clear.

What tends to have been forgotten is the human cost of the disease.

Many of those whose animals were slaughtered have not recovered, and they will not forget the horror of it all.

The relationship between stockmen and their animals is complex.

The animal, although far from dumb, relies entirely on the stockman for the essentials of life. These are provided, and they must be timely.

When in difficulty the animal must be helped. When sick it must be nursed. When hungry it must be fed.

The outbreak of something like foot and mouth invades this relationship. There is a feeling that the trust has broken down, and many feel they somehow failed their animals.

I have been surprised, given the economics of the case, by how many of those who had their stock slaughtered have gone back into the same, or a similar, business.

There are now more restrictions, more forms to fill in. This is hardly surprising. The cost to the nation was huge.

The problem is that, although the restrictions may slow down the spread of disease, they will not in themselves prevent another outbreak.

We are often told that bringing meat into the country is not difficult, and is rarely detected.

A fair amount of bush meat is now imported for personal consumption and some for dealing and selling on.

The fact that one cannot imagine why is not the point. It is happening.

The facts seem to suggest that the most likely method of transmission was because of the movement of live sheep. The reason so many live sheep are transported about are twofold.

Firstly there are fewer abattoirs in which to have the stock processed.

This is a major problem and one which neither the UK nor the EU administrations seem to have addressed.

Ministers keep talking about welfare of the animal going to slaughter and the importance of short journeys.

They keep talking about the importance of local food and the environmental damage caused by "food miles" as it is hauled up and down the motorways.

They then make it more difficult for local abattoirs to stay open by introducing legislation to solve a problem we do not have.

If food was so bad, why are people living so long? Why do we need new legislation with the huge expense that goes into enforcing it?

The second reason why there are so may movements of live sheep, is that the French like to eat French lamb.

For a lamb to be defined as French it is necessary for it to live in France, even for a couple of weeks.

So it needs to be exported live, which most of the ministers still do not understand.

To get round this problem it is going to be necessary to change the way the French mind works.

As Messrs. Blair and Bush are finding right now over war in Iraq, that is a tall order.

Updated: 10:38 Tuesday, February 18, 2003