Foot-and IAH foot-and-mouth disease scientist in the media -mouth disease (FMD) is invariably active
somewhere in the world. In 2009 it spread from China to Japan, where it resulted in the deaths of
scores of thousands of cloven-footed livestock. A TV crew from the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation
NHK came to IAH Pirbright to film FMD expert Professor David Paton describing how difficult it was to
stop the spread of the disease, how it was diagnosed, and the pros and cons of vaccination against it.
They also came to our farm adjacent to our Compton Laboratory, where Dairy Manager Geoff Hopkins showed
them around to film healthy cattle.