The sight of dead cattle, sheep and pigs being torched in fields was an enduring image of foot and mouth disease, which plagued Kent and the rest of the country in 2001. The highly infectious epidemic had taken such a grip that even uncontaminated animals were slaughtered to stop the spread.

Warning: Contains graphic images

On February 27 the KM Group's then evening newspaper, Medway Today, published harrowing pictures of cattles' bodies being burned after they were laid out on coal and straw.

The headline was: 'Killing fields'.

This was at Little Grigg Farm near Maidstone where 200 animals had to be killed because of the site's links with contaminated sites.

Foot and mouth disease is highly infectious and needs vaccines to combat it.

In 2001 it had economic effects, curbed people's movements and caused isolation for some but none of this was on the same scale as the present Covid-19 pandemic.

Also, it almost never infected people.

The first UK case of FMD in 2001 was at an abattoir in Essex on February 20.

The epidemic didn't reach Kent until the following month but before then animals were killed if there was even a suspicion of them having the disease.

Farmland and country rights of way were put out of bounds to the public because humans could even carry the virus on their shoes and clothes.

It led to 2,026 cases of the disease in farms in this country from February 20 to September 30 and more than 6 million sheep and cattle ended up culled.

The disease affected cloven-hoofed animals and in the end it was estimated to have cost Britain £8 billion to the agricultural and support industries, and to the outdoor industry.

Already by late February an exclusion zone banning the movement of animals was imposed on farms in parts of north Kent down to Northfleet.

Dog walkers, hikers and cross-country riders were asked by farmers and police to stop their pastimes until the crisis was over.

Off-road motorcyclists were told to do the same as the disease could also be spread through the treads of tyres.

The RSPB on February 23 closed its reserves throughout the country including at Cliffe Woods and Northward Hill in Medway, Dungeness in Romney Marsh, Blean Woods near Canterbury and Tudeley Woods, Tunbridge Wells.

Kent County Council shut down open spaces including Shorne Country Park in Gravesham, Manor Park Country Park in Malling, Teston Bridge Country Park in Maidstone borough and the Blue Bell Hill picnic site near Rochester.

Medway Ramblers and the Medway Towns Footpath Group cancelled their outings.

Shorne transporters N&T Cutler stopped carrying animals even though it affected their business. The company regularly moved animals between farms to abattoirs and markets.

The fateful day for Kent was Saturday, March 10 when the illness first arrived at New Hall Farm in New Hall Farm Lane, Allhallows, Medway.

A total 70 cattle had to be killed there and a two-mile (3km) exclusion zone was put around the farm.

The farm was run by Trevor and Marilyn Smith and Mrs Smith said at the time: "Some of the cattle appeared to be unwell, The cows were off their food and salivating. We never dreamed it would be foot and mouth.

"We have no idea how it could have got here - there has been no traffic in or out other than our cars."

Medway Council officers were called back to work that weekend with about 10 managing an emergency unit at the Civic Centre in Strood.

Their job was to enforce the ban on animal movements and stop people walking through the countryside, including footpaths.

Government policy was to slaughter animals even suspected of having the disease - regardless of test results.

Farmers quaked over whether their livestock would be spared or not.

Mike Clements was in a yo-yo of emotions when MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) officials told him, on March 17, to cull his cattle and sheep but was given a reprieve two days later.

Mr Clements, of Bonington Farm, Goodnestone, raised the alarm after fearing symptoms in three lambs.

The order to kill was then given but afterwards he was told tissue samples proved negative so he got a provisional all-clear.

On April 4 Medway Today reported that soldiers from Folkestone and London were building two huge funeral pyres, 4km (2.5 miles) apart, to burn the corpses of thousands of sheep and cattle on the Isle of Grain.

It was on Ministry of Defence land at Yanton Range.

Again the animals were killed as a precaution as they were close to an original herd of 650 sheep first suspected of carrying FMD three weeks before.

Nearly 40 men were called from the Second Battalion of the Royal Gurkhas at Shorncliffe and the Royal Artillery in Woolwich.

Among the first burned were the corpses of 650 sheep and 90 cattle belonging to farmer Mark Cooper, of Matts Hill Farm, Hartlip,Swale.

He said at the time: "It is absolute chaos. The government doesn't seem to know what it's doing, it is one policy and then another. If it was going to slaughter on suspicion it should have been done three weeks ago."

The peak of the epidemic was in March and by the 26th Kent had still only had four cases, the others being in Adisham near Canterbury, Sheppey and Sandwich.

The worst affected county was Cumbria, which by then had 221 cases.

The social consequences were that farmers felt isolated because they were afraid to meet for fear of passing on the virus.

Farmer Kathy Maclean, from St Mary's Hall, St Mary's Hoo, said at he time: "We are afraid of turning into agricultural lepers."

Church bells were rung in support of them.

Medway vicar the Rev Paul McVeagh said: "There is a real sense of isolation among farmers. It's miserable not being able to talk to other farmers for fear of spreading foot and mouth."

The crisis affected some rural businesses with many people now avoiding the countryside.

Valerie Watson, landlady of the Rose and Crown pub in Allhallows, said it had been a "nightmare" with customers no longer coming.

Staff at Leeds Castle near Maidstone were asked to consider voluntary redundancy or early retirement because of falling visitor numbers.

Demelza House Children's Hospice said the epidemic had affected its fundraising as several rural events had to be cancelled.

Sales of meat of cloven-hoofed animals tumbled but sales of alternatives such as chicken, soared. Butcher Leroy Moore, of Rainham, said these rocketed from 400 a week before the crisis to 1,280 now.

"It's miserable not being able to talk to other farmers for fear of spreading foot and mouth..."

Investigators later traced the source of this epidemic to pigs in Northumberland that had been fed infected swill made from school dinners.

They had been brought to the Essex slaughterhouse, Cheale Meats at Little Warley near Brentwood, where the first case was reported.

Richard Whitehead, chairman of the Rochester branch of the National Farmers' Union, said the virus could be carried over by the wind.

It was estimated that spores could be blown up to 65km (40 miles).

Nationally the crisis led to the postponing of that year's general election,from May 3 to June 7.

This was to prevent farmers unwittingly spreading the virus when they came to polling stations.

FMD is a sometimes fatal viral disease, causes a high fever lasting two to six days, followed by blisters inside the mouth and on the feet that may rupture and cause lameness.

The incubation period is about 14 days. The last case of a human stricken in the UK was during a previous outbreak in 1967.

A farmworker drank contaminated milk but recovered several weeks later.

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