Foot and Mouth is a highly infectious viral disease, affecting mainly pigs, cows, sheep and goats. The disease can be recognised by fever, blisters in the mouth vicinity, teats or between the hooves.
Introduction
Foot and Mouth is a highly infectious viral disease, affecting mainly pigs, cows, sheep and goats. The disease can be recognised by fever, blisters in the mouth vicinity, teats or between the hooves.
The livestock do not actually need to be destroyed once the disease has been identified and in fact there is a vaccination for one strain of the disease. However, vaccinated animals can still be carriers and therefore pass the disease on. This then leaves little alternative but to destroy and burn the infected livestock.
The official 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) occurred on the 21st February, however reports suggest that the outbreak was well advanced by then. Infected sheep were sent to Hexham market on the 13th February, other sheep were then infected and transported across England. The sheep at Hexham market must have caught the infection up to 2 weeks before this time and the source of that infection must have been 2 weeks before then.
The last major epidemic of foot and mouth disease was in the 1960’s and at first it was hoped that the outbreak this year was not going to get anywhere near as bad. Unfortunately the 2001 outbreak has long since gone beyond that of the 1960’s for a number of reasons, namely the sheer volume and distance involved in the transportation of livestock.
In the 1960’s outbreak the Armed Forces were called in after 12 days, however this time round, MAFF spent 20 days talking with the Army before deciding that they needed their help, during which time the problem was becoming increasingly worse. At first the government decided that the Army were to just be involved in the disposal of carcasses but on the 28th March they had to fall back on their contingency plan and use the Army to assist in the slaughter as well.
Methodology
Information was gathered from nightly news reports, then researched for further information on the internet and newspaper. This gave the report the information on the current FMD outbreak.
The report used the books listed in the bibliography and class notes to investigate the theory relevant to the criteria set out in the assignment.
A run down of the major decisions and events made of the 2001 FMD
[source – www.news.bbc.co.uk]
Planning
A plan is a clear guide that helps to arrange people, and align their efforts towards the same goal, in this case to eradicate the disease foot and mouth. Without a direct and comprehensible plan, there is risk of diversity or misinterpretation, which in turn will not succeed the required primary objectives.
A successful plan has to include certain features in order to ...
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[source – www.news.bbc.co.uk]
Planning
A plan is a clear guide that helps to arrange people, and align their efforts towards the same goal, in this case to eradicate the disease foot and mouth. Without a direct and comprehensible plan, there is risk of diversity or misinterpretation, which in turn will not succeed the required primary objectives.
A successful plan has to include certain features in order to be effective. They are as follows:
- Goals - these are the aims or objectives of the plan, which should be adhered too until the desired plan is successful. This can also be a general aim or statement
- Objectives – this is the purpose of the plan and specifies results and outcomes that are worth achieving. To be sure that the objectives have been covered, the ‘SMART’ sequence can be put to use:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time limited
- Strategies – these are in all types of plans, and define the broad categories or type of action required to achieve the objectives. Examples of strategies in action may be restructuring, developing systems and managing resources
- Tactics – these are the individual actions and jobs that will be required to implement strategies
The planning process can manage the activities and output of a plan and is crucial for achieving the best possible performance and outcome. The control loop is a way of illustrating the planning process as a continuous cycle and development. [Appendices Figure 1]
There are 4 main stages involved:
- Drawing up the plan – this involves designing the plan based on research and experience
- Implementing the plan – this is carrying out the objectives and goals of the plan
- Monitoring the plan – this is simply the method of maintaining a continuous assessment and how the plan is progressing towards its primary objectives
- Evaluating the Plan – this stage is concerned about how successful its plans and strategies have actually performed. It can offer a basis for making decisions and allocating potential resources
Strategic planning
One definition of strategy is “the direction that an organisation takes over the long term to reach its goals”. Any organisation whether it be a commercial business or a government department will have a strategic plan aimed at steering the company towards achieving its expectations.
An example of a strategic plan for a commercial operation may be the short-term reduction in prices and profit margins to capture a long term increase in market share. An example of a strategic plan for a public sector organisation may be the provision of increased services with a lower budget by the use of private contractors and commercialisation of the organisations operations i.e. NHS. Whatever the organisation and its motive (profit or service) it will need a long-term strategic plan to ensure that the organisation operations are in line with meeting its goals.
The design and implementation of a strategic plan can be divided into three elements:
- Strategic analysis – the design of a strategic plan can be influenced by many internal and external factors, the organisations operating environment, the available resources and capability and the organisations purpose and expectations will all determine the design and choice of the strategic plan
- Strategic choice – the bases of strategic choice, strategic options and alternatives and strategic plan evaluation will all influence the plan that is chosen or designed
- Strategic implementation – the way that the plan is implemented will depend upon the organisation structure and culture, the availability and allocation of resources and the successful management of change
Often the strategic plan of an organisation will consist of many different plans working in parallel with the strategic plan, for example each department will have its own plan i.e. the finance department plans budgets and the marketing department will have a marketing strategy. Each plan will be designed in conjunction with each other and will included factors such as resource allocation, communications, budgets and procedures. The successful implementation of each plan will be essential in the strategy of the organisation.
The stages of planning a strategic or departmental plan are:
- Define the objective and goals of the organisation
- Generate options and alternatives and evaluate them
- Identify the organisations activities
- Sequence the activities
- Identify the available resources to carry out the activities
- Design and review the plan
- Implement the plan-prepare schedules and timetables
- Monitor and control the plan
- Review and amend the plan- continually
Strategic planning in the public sector
Strategic planning in the public sector is much more difficult than in the private sector because of the different objectives of most public sector organisations i.e. the service motive and because of the powerful influence/interference from governments. The constraints and guidelines imposed by governments also limits the options available for strategic planning. Competition for resources i.e. taxpayers money and a constant demand for unrealistic value for money along with the disruptive political interference and short termism of governments all combine to make strategic planning within public sector organisations very difficult.
Contingency planning
A strategic plan is a pathway for an organisation to follow in order to reach its goals, strategic plans can only be designed with the information available at the time. A strategic plan can be derailed by unforeseen events in the future, a prime example of this is the recent economic crisis in Asia, which has effected many companies and forced them to change their trading strategies. Dealing with these events or contingencies can be approached in two ways, an ad-hoc approach, dealing with each event as it occurs or a planned approach, attempting to predict contingencies and planning in advance for them properly.
To minimise the effect of such events strategic plans should incorporate contingency plans, which will attempt to minimise the effect of any contingencies that may influence the long-term goals of the organisation. Contingency plans can fall into two different categories.
Strategic – this can involve major events such as lower/higher than expected sales, technology changes i.e. the increased use of the internet affecting traditional retailers and changes in economic conditions.
Operational – these involve changes that affect the operation of the organisation and may indirectly affect the strategic plan of the company, examples are increases in material or operating costs, industrial action and loss of buildings or plant etc
Designing contingency plans can be done by the use of scenario building or “what if “ analysis. This involves identifying the uncertainties and creating scenarios, best and worst case and dominant theme and then attempting to devise a plan of action should that contingency occur.
Decision Making Process
Decision-making is a fundamental management task. A successful plan must have quality decision, if it is at all effective. It also includes identifying the alternative choices or options and analysing each one, until selecting the most appropriate.
When managers are making decisions, it helps them to know what type of decision they are dealing with. There are four common types of decision:
- Routine – these are benchmark decisions that are commonly addressed
- Critical – these are crucial decisions which need to be adhered to with immediate action. It is customary that a manager will deal with these types of decisions
- Consultative – this is where the result of the decision may affect more than one individuals, and therefore could involve more than one person in the decision making process, e.g a team
Government Objectives
There were many objectives that the government set at the beginning of the foot-and-mouth disease and during it. Here are some of them below:
- Slaughter any infected animals within 24 hrs of the infection being reported
- Animals on neighbouring farms to be culled within 48 hrs.
- Disposal of animal carcasses within 72 hrs
- Contain the disease by the mass slaughter of one million healthy animals
- Limit the effect on rural communities
- Limit the effect on the wider economy
- Prime objective – eradicate the disease and return the farming industry to a normal and disease free status
Government Decisions
There are many decisions that were made as the crisis unfolded. The most significant being:
- Imposing the live export ban – this was decided on the 21st February when the first ‘official’ case was reported
- Imposing movement ban – knee-jerk reaction in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease, all movement of animals is banned
- Easing of movement restrictions – the ban of the movement of livestock is eased after concerns are raised about animal welfare
- Cheltenham Festival cancelled – the severity of the outbreak is illustrated by the cancelling of the world’s largest race meeting. Many other public attractions, and large areas of the countryside are closed
- Help for the Tourist Industry – the government announces a substantial aid package, for tourist industries in the worst affected areas. Government ministers encourage local councils to re-open the countryside in an attempt to ease the damage to the tourist industry, some councils have refused casting a shadow over the government ability to control the situation
- Pushing back general election to 7th June – after the Prime Minister’s refusal to reschedule the General Election, public opinion and pressure from the opposition forced them to postponed the election
- Government grant reprieve for ‘Phoenix’ – Downing Street granted a last minute reprieve to a 12 day old calf that survived a foot and mouth cull on the farm that it was born on, after a media and public outcry
Government Strategy
The out break of any major animal disease such as the recent foot and mouth crisis are managed by government departments who will attempt to contain and eradicate the disease and rebuild the affected industry after the crisis.
The government department that is responsible for animal disease in the UK is the ministry of agriculture fishery and foods MAFF (and several sub- departments within MAFF). Ideally MAFF should have a comprehensive strategic plan to deal with such animal health issues based on UK and EU legislation, however it has become clear that MAFF are inadequately prepared to handle this crisis.
MAFF’s approach to the crisis has been “ad hoc” i.e. attempting to solve each problem as it has arisen. This indicates that the ministry did not have sufficient strategic or contingency plans in place for such an event. The time taken to make decisions and implement them and the way that policy has been dictated by public opinion and lobbying indicates a complete lack of a prior plan. This is a situation that should not have arisen because this is not the first time that Britain has suffered a major out break of foot and mouth disease. A far more severe outbreak was experienced in 1967 and a smaller outbreak in the 1980’s was successfully contained and eradicated with only a small number of farms being affected. These two events suggest that the departments responsible for the handling of the outbreak should have knowledge, experience and strategies and plans for managing the situation based on lessons learned previously. The lack of any significant strategy has led to what could have been an isolated incident becoming a national disaster. The authorities have failed not only to devise an adequate plan in preparation for such events but have also failed to learn lessons from the past.
Several embarrassing revelations have come to light during the crisis that indicate the need for a comprehensive and well designed plan.
- During January – a few weeks before the first case was reported, a number of companies were contacted by MAFF officials asking if they would be able to supply large quantities of timber (for the pyres). MAFF also purchased a large amount of cleaning equipment, brushes and chemicals. MAFF claimed that they were just updating their records and stocks, the opposition claimed they were attempting to cover up the outbreak in the hope it would be contained
- It emerged that the authorities responsible for controlling the outbreak were using methods set by a precedence from a similar outbreak in the1890’s and were completely ignoring successful methods used in recent years by other countries
- When concerns were raised about the dangers to human health from the use of burning wood and hay and the resultant release of Dioxins (pollutants dangerous to humans) the authorities refused to consider the alternative use of Napalm (highly flammable liquid) This method had been used with great success in the US. Napalm reduces the burning time of a cows carcass from sixty hours to just one hour and does not release Dioxins
These are just three examples of how failing to create sufficient strategic and contingency plans, and to continually review and update them can lead to failure.
A strategy that has been considered by the government throughout the outbreak, is the possible mass vaccination combined with rapid slaughter. This strategy has been resisted due to the implications involved, i.e. the possible prolonging of the outbreak.
Despite the government’s decision to wait and see whether the policy of containment by slaughter achieved its objective, contingency vaccination centres were put in place.
Conclusion
There is always the argument that we should not be destroying the livestock at all. While foot and mouth is painful and unpleasant for the animals, they do not necessarily die from the disease. There is also the fact that it remains safe for humans to consume the meat and meat products of an infected animal, with no risk to themselves. There is however a larger picture to consider.
Firstly it would put an end to all export trade. It would be very difficult to encourage other countries to buy our products if we were known to allow disease.
Another major industry affected by the 2001 FMD outbreak is the tourism industry. The government has already set aside £6 million, however it has been reported that the cost to repair the industry is close to £30 million.
If the government were to allow the disease to become endemic, then the tourism industry would suffer even more in the long-term. In the extreme, governments from other countries could even ban their citizens from visiting Britain for their holidays for fear of the disease being brought back with them.
The current crisis and the way that the authorities have attempted to manage it has clearly illustrated the need and importance of formal planning. Any organisation will eventually encounter a situation that could be potentially disastrous for them. Failing to prepare and implement plans and strategies for any contingency is potentially damaging to the survival of any organisation.