Vet recalls horror of epidemic Maine man traveled to England to fight foot-and-mouth disease

loading...

PITTSFIELD – Twenty-four hours after Maine’s state veterinarian, Don Hoenig, landed at Logan International Airport in Boston from England, he was still reeling from his five-week experience in dealing with foot-and-mouth disease.

Part of the first wave of 40 American veterinarians sent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist Great Britain with the epidemic, Hoenig said he wasn’t prepared for the devastation and loss he witnessed.

“I have great memories of the people,” Hoenig said. He called the British farmers “the most gracious, courageous people I have ever met.”

But the smell of burning piles of livestock lingers in his mind, and he can’t escape memories of the devastating silence of the farms where every animal had been slaughtered.

“The human toll is beyond comprehension,” he admitted Wednesday. “I’ve shed a lot of tears.”

Upon arriving in England five weeks ago, Hoenig and 10 other U.S. veterinarians received a hurried, two-hour indoctrination before being handed car keys, a cellphone and maps. It was the beginning of nonstop, 12-hour workdays.

Donning a disposable paper suit, Hoenig began making the rounds of sheep farms in Lancashire, in northwest England. Fearing contamination, farmers had posted their land.

“We couldn’t even drive onto the farms,” the veterinarian said. “There were signs everywhere, and the road was laced with straw sprayed with disinfectant.

“We would park on the road and walk in. We were under orders that if we found the disease, we were to kill the animal right then and there. That’s a very awesome level of power.”

Hoenig said, “I knew about the disease, but there was no way I was prepared for what I saw.” In the beginning, he inspected herds. By the end of his stay, he was assisting in the widespread slaughter.

“On some farms, I would look at one goat. At others, 2,000 sheep. One day, I looked at 8,000 pigs,” he said.

Since foot-and-mouth was diagnosed in late February, Britain has condemned more than a million animals for slaughter, and the number of infected sites has passed 1,000. On Wednesday, the British government announced that there have been signs of progress in stemming the spread of the disease, although it now has spread to France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

“I never realized how much agriculture controlled England’s economy,” Hoenig said. “It was a nation of farmers. Now it is a nation of silence.”

The state veterinarian commented that “the British government is sending out mixed messages. Prime Minister Tony Blair says the country is open for tourism. Well, the cities are. But in reality, large parts of the country are not.”

He said that although the country’s tourism industry was suffering greatly, “the farmers are suffering more.”

Hoenig said that when he left England on Tuesday, “it looked like it was leveling off. It was hard to tell, though.”

“The morning I left, I was slaughtering sheep and cattle at one farm when we received word that another case had been diagnosed in the next town.”

When the disease is confirmed in an area, Hoenig explained, every animal in the surrounding countryside is slaughtered. The widespread killing has been England’s attempt to stop the spread of the highly contagious disease, which humans can carry but cannot catch.

“The last farmer I dealt with, his farm was adjacent to one that was infected, but his sheep weren’t infected,” Hoenig called. “Still, they all had to be slaughtered. He had spent his whole life devoted to the breeding of Blue Faced Leicesters. He showed me the blue ribbons from winning the Royal Livestock Show.”

In a driving rainstorm last Saturday, Hoenig helped slaughter the prized sheep.

“He was heartbroken,” Hoenig said about the farmer. “He brought down his champion sheep and their lambs last. He stood there and watched as his whole lifetime was killed and buried.”

Hoenig said that there has been no bitterness among Britain’s farmers, only heartbreak.

“He was so gracious. He said to me, ‘If this prevents or stops this from going through this valley, it will have been worth it.’

“I saw one trench – 5 meters wide, 4 meters deep and 100 meters long – meant for burying 40,000 sheep. They are basically wiping out England’s livestock,” he said.

Hoenig said this particular farmer had not left his farm in six weeks because of a self-imposed quarantine. “The children’s schoolwork was being faxed to them, even,” he said.

The farmer’s family had watched the fires burn all around them for weeks, waiting for the slaughter to reach their own farm. “The uncertainty of it all had to be excruciating,” said Hoenig. And because infected farms were quarantined, clergy and counselors couldn’t visit – help was given over the phone lines.

During Hoenig’s stay, one farmer committed suicide and another tried to poison himself.

“The biggest problem England had,” he said, “was that the disease had a three-week head start before it was diagnosed. From a couple of sheep markets in early February, it had disseminated throughout England, Wales and Scotland within three weeks.”

“It could happen here,” said Hoenig, referring to Maine. “I’ve gained a lot of perspective on the disease and have a lot of thoughts about how we can prepare for this. It could very easily be found here.”

The United States has been free of the disease since 1929.

Ports of entry are being scrutinized, and there is a temporary import ban on swine, ruminants, and products that could carry the virus from Europe. Travelers to and from Europe are being warned of the disease.

Hoenig said that since foot-and-mouth disease strikes cloven-hoofed animals, he was surprised that Britain was not dealing with its wildlife population at all.

“There are a lot of deer in the heavily infected areas,” he said. “Here, we would bring the wildlife people in right at the very beginning.”

If foot-and-mouth disease were found in Maine, the state’s entire livestock population could be in jeopardy, he said. But if it were found in another state – first in a feedlot in Texas, then on a farm in Kansas, for example – “we would immediately close our borders to all animal movement.”

Hoenig will be working closely with Maine Department of Agriculture officials to keep Maine farmers updated on foot-and-mouth disease issues.

Meanwhile, he said, he will try to decompress from his experience abroad.

“I kept a journal while I was there. I have a lot to reflect on,” he said. “Aside from the disease, it was a beautiful countryside filled with sweet, gentle people. There are so many vignettes, so many stories.”