Twenty years ago, Atomic Kitten was top of the charts, Tony Blair was the Prime Minister and Gladiator was tipped to win all the prizes at the Baftas.

2001 is now two decades ago, and in a world of coronavirus and smartphones, it already feels like a different time.

The year would end up being one of tragedy and turmoil, and one of the biggest crises in the UK stemmed from a small discovery in Essex.

At a small abattoir in Little Warley, Essex, on February 19, 2001, a worker discovered a pig with a worrying disease.

In the coming days, the disease, known as Foot and Mouth disease, would spread across the county, and become a year-long attack on our farm animals.

It would cause untold damage to the livestock industry across the county, and would even spread abroad.

This is how a discovery in Little Warley led to the slaughter of six million farm animals nationwide.

Cheale Meats abattoir

Quarantines were put in place at farms across the country
Quarantines were put in place at farms across the country

On February 19, 2001, the first confirmed discovery of Foot and Mouth disease was made at the Cheale Meats abattoir in Little Warley, a small village close to Brentwood.

Foot and Mouth disease is a viral infection which can spread between hooved animals like pigs, cows and sheep.

It's incredibly infectious and is fatal for many farm animals.

Because of how infectious the virus is, it's easily spread between farming machinery, and it can spread very quickly.

Two days later, Director of Cheale Meats, Paul Cheale, said that a total of 27 pigs had confirmed cases of the virus in the abattoir.

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A five-mile exclusion zone was put in place around the abattoir and a nearby farm to try and contain the virus.

He told the press at the time: "Everyone in the industry has been left shattered by this."

The National Farmers Union president Ben Gill warned of the seriousness of this virus in the very early staged.

He said: "This outbreak has potentially catastrophic implications for the whole of the British livestock industry.

"The priority now is to contain it."

However, things got worse very quickly.

The pigs were sourced by Cheale Meats from farms in Buckinghamshire and the Isle of Wight.

The race was on to stop the exporting of livestock from these farms before it was too late.

Nationwide destruction

Exclusion zones were put in place across the country
Exclusion zones and Foot and Mouth checkpoints were put in place across the country

Unfortunately, widespread damage had already been done.

Cases of Foot and Mouth were being found across Essex over the next week, and on February 23, a case was confirmed in Northumberland at the Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall.

It was eventually discovered that this farm in Northumberland was the original source of the virus, and the disease was not immediately reported to the authorities.

Following the transport of pigs from this farm, the virus had already spread across the country.

Over the coming weeks, cases were discovered in farms in Devon, Cornwall, Scotland and the Lake District.

It was here where the damage was gargantuan.

By March, tactics of localised containment has changed, and the MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) starting ordering the slaughter of all livestock within three kilometers of all known cases.

Zoos across the country were closed
Zoos across the country were closed

These animals would then be burnt to make sure the virus didn't spread at all.

By the end of March, there were 50 new cases a day, leading to widespread slaughter.

It was a horrific sight for animal lovers, as well as the livestock industry.

Throughout the course of the outbreak, six million farm animals would be slaughtered and disposed of in an attempt to contain the virus.

Farms were made quarantine zones, with the Ministry of Defence enacting checkpoints at areas across the UK.

Northern counties like Cumbria and Northumberland were especially affected.

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The Cheltenham Festival was cancelled because of fears the infections could spread to racing horses.

Zoos were closed across the country, and disruption continued throughout the spring and the summer.

Localised outbreaks were even identified in parts of Europe, but nowhere near as severe as it was in Britain.

By the autumn, the virus' severity was downgraded, and the final cull of animals took place in January 2002.

It's estimated that the 2001 outbreak caused £8 billion worth of damage to the UK economy, equivalent to more than £13 billion today.

Lasting impact

The virus led to the slaughter of more than six million farm animals

It's claimed that the virus spread because the Burnside Farm didn't sterilise their pig feed properly.

It meant that meat in the 'swill' fed to pigs became infected by the Foot and Mouth virus, which spread through the farm and then across the country when pigs were transported.

According to a government report, it's likely that this meat was imported illegally, leading to undetected virus strains in the food.

Owner of the farm, Bobby Waugh of Pallion, was found guilty of having failed to inform the authorities of a notifiable disease and banned from keeping farm animals for 15 years.

He was later found guilty of feeding his pigs "untreated waste".

The virus made a brief return six years later, but nowhere near at the scale of the 2001 outbreak.

The failures of the containment led to changes in how the government reacts to zoological outbreaks, and the dissolution of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which was replaced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs known as DEFRA.

Like coronavirus, it's clear that the Foot and Mouth crisis would have been limited if signs were discovered sooner and greater action taken.

What's clear in hindsight is that if the Cheale Meats abattoir didn't report their case as soon as they did, things would have been a lot worse.