Traces of a cover-up at farm where foot-and-mouth began

LONDON - Amid the stench of burning carcasses a new smell is pervading the countryside ravaged by the foot-and-mouth crisis – that of a cover-up.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) and Northumberland County Council are refusing to release two separate reports on the farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, thought to be the origin of the disease outbreak.

Suspicion has been growing that officials responsible for monitoring the Burnside pig farm at Heddon could have done more, either to force it to cease business immediately or to have spotted the early signs of the disease. The intervention of a minister could prove decisive in uncovering the truth.

The Independent has learnt that Chris Mullin, whose Sunderland South constituency is close to Heddon, has written on behalf of a constituent to Nick Brown, the Minister of Agriculture, asking for a copy of his department's report on the farm.

Mr Mullin, deputy to Clare Short at the Department for International Development and a redoubtable campaigner on freedom of information, was asked to write because he tackles animal welfare issues and was a vociferous opponent of exports of calves for veal.

The farming practices subjected to scrutiny at Burnside are not expected to be dealt with in detail in a study due to be published by Maff today into the likely origins of the outbreak.

Instead, the report will simply pinpoint contaminated pigswill, possibly due to illegally imported meat, as the probable cause. It is also expected to highlight the movements of sheep around the country as a crucial contributory factor to the rapid spread of disease. Maff will propose banning leftovers from canteens and restaurants from being fed to pigs, and restrict the trade in sheep.

But as well as dangers in the current systems for handling pigswill and sheep dealing, critics point to weaknesses in the inspection process. There is concrete proof that something was badly amiss on the farm run by Bobby Waugh and his brother Ronnie – and that officials must have known about it.

The Independent has established, for instance, that when the RSPCA tried to visit the farm as early as last December, two months before the outbreak was confirmed, it was warned off by Northumberland County Council. RSPCA inspectors were told to forget trying to examine the animals at Burnside as they would almost certainly be denied access.

On 16 December, Martin Coutts, a North-east animal welfare campaigner attached to Hillside sanctuary in Norwich, received a report, a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent, from an informant who allegedly had recent first-hand experience of the farm.

The report made chilling reading: "Pigs live in absolute squalor including rotting carcasses of pigs littering the unit; piglets were literally being eaten alive after being born amongst the rest of the pigs; I suspected there might be some disease present on the premises as the animals looked unhealthy; I also had reason to believe that the pigswill that was being fed to the pigs had not been boiled as the law requires and it was therefore contaminated."

On the same day, 16 December, Mr Coutts looked at the exterior of the farm. It was clearly in a dilapidated state. Even from the outside he was able to see containers of feed for the pigs which clearly included pieces of raw meat. He alerted the RSPCA at the first opportunity, but the society was told to stay away. A spokeswoman said yesterday: "Before we even made it to the farm we were alerted by Northumberland County Council that we would be unable to gain access."

Mr Coutts said: "You would think that if it was known the RSPCA would be refused entry that would be enough to raise alarm bells."

The RSPCA did not go to the police but chose to rely on the council's trading standards officers and Maff to move against Mr Waugh. It is not known what trading standards and ministry officials found when they visited the farm on 22 December. Suggestions that trading standards favoured an immediate prosecution but were talked out of taking action by Maff are denied by the ministry.

However, a hint of a dispute is contained in a statement from the council, which says pointedly: "Trading standards inspectors rely on Maff vets to advise us on the health and welfare of livestock."

The ministry admits that something gave rise for concern. "Advice was issued to the farmer," said a ministry spokesman, "but there were no grounds for a welfare-related prosecution." Mr Waugh was allowed to go about his business.

On 24 January, trading standards, accompanied by a Maff vet, went to the farm again, not a random visit but a pre-arranged annual inspection. Again, Burnside was not shut down. By this time, foot-and-mouth was probably incubating on the farm or worse, may have been evident. Lesions on the Burnside pigs are understood to have been dated to early February – days after the annual visit. Since foot-and-mouth has a two-week incubation period, the disease could have been present when they made their inspection.

There is a suggestion officials are worried the virus may have been present much earlier – possibly in mid-December. Hillside, which employs Mr Coutts, has been served with a Maff foot-and-mouth caution notice, saying one of its workers had been near a contaminated area. This apparently relates to his visit to Burnside's gates on 16 December – long before the official date of the outbreak.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Online feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

UK outbreak map

World organisation for animal health

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature

Virus databases online