Cool Peter out to stop hot air

13 April 2012

Peter Webbon is Rudyard Kipling's kind of guy. During Britain's escalating foot-and-mouth crisis, the Jockey Club's chief veterinary adviser and small-scale sheep farmer has kept his head when all about him are losing theirs and blaming - well, anything, anyone.

When he was lecturer and director at the Royal Veterinary College's equine hospital at North Mimms in Hertfordshire, students gave him the nickname 'Cool Pete'.

Now 53 and affiliated to racing's regulators since 1997, his quiet insistence on scientific fact over scaremongering was a key factor in the sport resuming at Lingfield last week. He managed to convince a number of wavering racing folk to relaunch under the stringent sanitisation guidelines he helped implement.

Despite that, the battle against misunderstanding and misinformation continues.

Even though there have been repeated assurances from the government, including Tony Blair two days ago, that all scientific advice indicates racing is safe to go ahead provided precautions are in place, anecdote is still mistaken for fact.

"This is a virus that can be carried in the air, on clothes and in your hair," the Sunday Telegraph quoted Carola Godman Law, South of England Agriculture Society chairman, saying as evidence of the "breathtaking arrogance" of racing going ahead at Plumpton two days ago.

"Foot-and-mouth is now becoming windborne and to carry on racing could be a public-relations disaster," claimed Northants trainer Kim Bailey in yesterday's Racing Post.

However, Webbon begs to differ. He said: "The longest recorded distance of airborne spread of the virus among sheep and cows is 0.7km - around half a mile. I have seen figures of 150 miles quoted and this simply isn't true.

"It is more of a problem between pigs, but we are talking about direct airborne spread from one animal to another.

"The idea of an intermediary contributing to airborne threat is rejected almost out of hand by scientists.

"You can't casually get the virus in your hair. You probably will if you're working, say, in an infected cowshed, but having a shower and washing your clothes ends the story.

"The virus doesn't somehow jump off your hair if it sees a cow. You would have to stick your head virtually up an infected cow's nose to have a half chance of picking up the virus and then do the same with a clean cow to pass it on."

Webbon is in regular contact with the government chief veterinary adviser Jim Scudamore and Ministry of Agriculture scientists and epidemiologists.

That is a huge help to racing in fighting the PR battle against its perceived threat. Since the crisis erupted, he has made 300-mile round trips to London almost daily from his base near Monmouth and liaises regularly with the Jockey Club's inspectorate, who check racecourses and trainers for compliance to sanitisation rules.

But, as a semi-commercial farmer of a herd of 50 Lincoln Longwools, Webbon also lives by his word at the sharp end.

Just half a mile away at a farm in Llangarron, his neighbour had to shoot 500 cattle and sheep when vets traced a link in the chain of infection to that operation. Yet support for Webbon's role among the local farming community is strong.

"I have been racing three times since it resumed. Each time I returned home to susceptible animals and it never crossed my mind for a second that I was putting them at risk," he said.

"If contrary to fact you somehow believe that, through attending a race meeting, you could be carrying the virus on your clothes or hair, then shower and change. It's quite simple."

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