The FMD Epidemic

Nature, first prize stories

4/3/2001

An outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease devastated farms across the country. Thousands of animals were slaughtered, bulldozed and buried, to halt the spread of the disease. Cases were also detected in other European countries prompting widespread debate about modern farming methods. Cows, sheep and pigs were destroyed in burning pits on farms from Scotland to England. During the crisis, tensions rose between farmers and agricultural advisers, when apparently healthy animals were also killed, to prevent further outbreaks.

Commissioned by: Reuters

Photo Credit: Jeff Mitchell

Jeff Mitchell was born in Milton, Scotland in 1970. Jeff has been a photographer for over 20 years starting out on the Helnsburgh Advertiser and progressing to the Edinburgh Evening News and Glasgow Herald, he also worked for Reuters before taking up a staff position for Getty Images in 2006, as a News Photographer based in Scotland.

Assignments have varied over the years from covering the recent clashes in Kiev, the Arab Spring, World Cup in Africa for FIFA, travelling on the Labour battle bus during the 2010 general election following Gordon Brown and features like Lairg Lamb sale - the largest one day sale in Europe, and Up Helly - AA Viking Festival on the Shetland Isles.

He has also been involved in many UK international news stories such as the funerals of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother, the foot and mouth outbreak and the multiple murder of 16 school children at Dunblane Primary School in March of 1996.

Jeff currently lives in Alexandria with his wife Lyn and two sons Finlay aged ten and Callum aged seven.