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Epidemiology

Foot-and-mouth disease under control in the UK

Nature volume 411, pages 258–259 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Following the first reported case on 20 February this year, foot-and-mouth disease spread to over 1,500 livestock farms in the United Kingdom by the end of April1,2,3. From late March, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) required livestock on infected farms to be culled within 24 hours of the disease being reported and those on neighbouring farms within 48 hours. Here we investigate whether progress towards meeting these targets3 has had a detectable impact on the course of the epidemic in the United Kingdom. We conclude that it has now been brought under control, but it will be important to contain rapidly any new outbreaks in previously unaffected areas.

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Figure 1: Changes through time in the case-reproduction ratio, R, for all of Britain and for the three most affected regions based on case report data up to 29 April.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Roslin, EH25 9RG, Midlothian, UK

    Mark Woolhouse, Margo Chase-Topping, Louise Matthews, Gareth Hughes & Darren Shaw

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Ontario, Canada

    Daniel Haydon

  3. Eoscene Corporation, 700 5th Avenue, Seattle, 98104, Washington, USA

    John Friar

  4. Institute for Animal Health Pirbright Laboratory, Ash Road, Pirbright, GU24 0NF, Surrey, UK

    Gareth Hughes & Alex Donaldson

  5. Veterinary Laboratories Agency, New Haw, Addlestone, KT15 3NB, Surrey, UK

    John Wilesmith

  6. Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK

    John Wilesmith

  7. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK

    Stephen Cornell, Matthew Keeling & Bryan Grenfell

Authors
  1. Mark Woolhouse
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  2. Margo Chase-Topping
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  3. Daniel Haydon
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  4. John Friar
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  5. Louise Matthews
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  6. Gareth Hughes
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  7. Darren Shaw
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  8. John Wilesmith
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  9. Alex Donaldson
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  10. Stephen Cornell
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  11. Matthew Keeling
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  12. Bryan Grenfell
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Cite this article

Woolhouse, M., Chase-Topping, M., Haydon, D. et al. Foot-and-mouth disease under control in the UK. Nature 411, 258–259 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35077149

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