How does a country's agricultural community and governmental forces respond to such a rapidly sprea!.
ding and highly contagious viral threat? Infected animals are quarantined and slaughtered, their remains being incinerated to decrease risk of further infection. Movement controls are quickly enforced upon surrounding livestock and animals that may have had contact with the disease are also slaughtered. All equipment used with the infected livestock is deemed unusable until thoroughly cleaned and guaranteed to be disinfected. With an understanding of the disease itself one may already begin to comprehend the vast damage such an infectious and debilitating illness is capable of.
Foot and Mouth Disease affects animals that are responsible for the supply of a large percentage of the world's meat and dairy products. The recent outbreak of the disease within Europe, specifically in the realm of the United Kingdom, has led to the slaughtering of over two million animals. A great number of these animals were sheep and cattle. Such a massive decrease in the numbers of such commonly consumed produce have had far reaching effects on the supply and demand of said produce. Previously within Europe, and countries that rely on Europe for meat and dairy products, there existed an equilibrium of supply and demand. This equilibrium can easily be explained as a point "where quantity demanded is equal to quantity supplied". (Fraser, Gionea, Fraser, 2000: 39) The outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease created a disequilibrium of both supply and demand that, although initially affecting only England, quickly spread its fingers to the rest of the world. Within England, both demand for and supply of English meat and dairy products decreased simultaneously. Supply decreased due simply to the slaughtering of animals and the banning of possibly infected materials. Demand decreased due to the public's fear of Foot and Mouth Disease.