A Manufactured Plague: The History of Foot-and-mouth Disease in Britain (Hardcover)

John Vidal, The Guardian, August 8, 2007
One of the best books on foot and mouth disease.


Synopsis
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is currently regarded as one of the world's worst animal plagues. But how did this label become attached to a curable disease that poses little threat to human health? And why, in the epidemic of 2001, did the government's control strategy still rely upon Victorian trade restrictions and mass slaughter? This groundbreaking and well-researched book shows that for over a century, FMD has brought fear, tragedy and sorrow - damaging businesses and shaping international relations. Yet these effects were neither inevitable nor caused by FMD itself but rather were the product of legislation used to control it. In this sense, FMD is a 'manufactured' plague not a natural one. The book turns the spotlight on this process of manufacture, revealing a rich history beset by controversy, in which party politics, class relations, veterinary ambitions, agricultural practices, the priorities of farming and the meat trade, fears for national security and scientific progress all made FMD what it is today.

First Sentence
It was in August 1839, the second year of Queen Victoria's reign, that the owner of a large Islington dairy herd noticed that six of his cows were limping and had begun to drool. Read the first page