IT HAS been 20 years since our TV screens were filled with the sight of animal carcasses burning on pyres, in a desperate effort to combat the spread of foot and mouth disease.

Six million farmed animals were killed as a result.

In the 1990s, the outbreak of BSE resulted in 4.4million cows being killed.

The human variant (vCJD) is thought to be responsible for the deaths of 178 people.

Those terrible scenes seem like a distant memory, but it is important to ask if anything has changed.

Little attention is being paid to the current outbreak of avian flu, which has been discovered (to date) at 20 locations in the UK.

As a result, almost 250,000 birds have died of the disease or been ‘actively culled'.

In reality, and according to the government, those birds were killed by being gassed to death or being hit with a ‘percussive' blow.

It is thought that three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases come from animals, and this highlights a disturbing pattern which needs to be addressed in order to alleviate further suffering and disease.

For further information, readers may wish to download Animal Aid's free report ‘Is Factory Farming Making Us Sick' from our website, as well as information on adopting an animal-free diet. www.animalaid.org.uk

Fiona Pereira

Animal Aid