THE foot-and-mouth disease crisis, which ravaged Herefordshire and Worcestershire, was a human tragedy and not just an animal one, researchers said today.

During the 2001 epidemic, much of the countryside was closed for months, and nationally between 6.5 million and 10 million animals were slaughtered.

But the distress continued to have an impact long after the outbreak was declared over, accor-ding to researchers writing in the British Medical Journal. The team from Lancaster University collected more than 3,000 weekly diaries from a "rural citizens' panel" including farmers, small business owners, doctors, vets and others living in affected areas.

The panel of 54 started their diaries in December 2001 and continued for 18 months. The researchers said that because the epidemic was treated as an animal problem, little had been known about the human cost of the disaster.

But a Worcestershire farmer who lost nearly 500 livestock said it was time to look to the future and dismissed the new report.

Philip Smith-Maxwell, who has since stopped farming at Himbleton, near Droitwich, said: "This is talking about four years ago and all this has been said. It's time to move on."

Mr Smith-Maxwell, who has now stopped farming and diversified under the national stewardship scheme, said he had been compensated for the loss, but even farmers without infected livestock suffered.

He now runs a horse ambulance service.

"Market values dropped dramatically and it was a hard time. But we have had to rebuild our lives."