Looking back at the Foot and Mouth crisis of 2001

The first reported case was in Essex on February 19.

Within weeks pyres were stacked high and the stench of burning livestock filled the air as 2,000 cases of the disease swept through the country.

Such had been the fear of the disease spreading that farmers neighbouring places where the disease was found also had to destroy their own animals

The domino effect of devastation impacted every facet of rural life - from education and tourism to sport.

Powys, Anglesey and Monmouthshire became the worst-hit areas while 35 per cent of Wales was put under restrictions.

Foot and Mouth Crisis. Ditches farm Churchstoke.

In total one million animals were slaughtered in Wales after the Army were drafted in to help.

In Wales alone a Welsh Government study found uncompensated farm losses to be between £50m and £90m.

A highly contagious disease for sheep, pigs and cows, foot and mouth can travel though air and water and multiply at the livestock markets held down the length and breadth of the UK every day.

Powys had been home to the largest pyre.

Foot and Mouth Crisis. Pyre being built at a farm in Buttington near Welshpool.

In Epynt a giant pyre burned 40,000 carcasses which created 20,000 tonnes of ash and took 30 lorries a day two months to move it to a landfill.

To rub salt into the weeping wounds of the area it was later confirmed by the Environment Agency that contamination from livestock carcasses had been found near the burial pit.

Foot and Mouth Information Centre at the Dragon Hotel, Montgomery. pic l-r Neil Brunton (Cheif Inspector, Powys) Gordin Smith (National Assembly Wales) and Captain Bernard Higgs

Prime Minister Tony Blair took the decision to delay the general election while to local elections were also postponed for the first time since World War Two.

On September 30, 2001, the last case of foot and mouth was reported and three months later the UK declared the emergency over.