1967, 2001, 2007… Nobody knows the next number in the sequence. We all fervently hope there will not be one, but many of us believe there will. I write this with a heavy heart, and fully aware of the pain many of you will revisit as you read it. It is 25 years since the horror of the 2001 foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, and a year since there were outbreaks in Germany, Slovakia and Hungary.
I remember the 1967-1968 outbreak. I know people who still find it hard to talk about their experiences from that time. Everybody old enough to remember 2001 knows something of the chaos the nations experienced, and many of you suffered excruciating trauma to yourselves, to friends and loved ones.
But we need to talk about what will happen when FMD next enters the UK. Imagine, some years from now, a report is published into an outbreak of FMD which is yet to happen. Such reports were written after 1968, and 2001, so there would be one.