British response:The British environment, food and rural affairs secretary, Hilary Benn, may be a vegetarian, but he will be hoping that his handling of the food-and-mouth outbreak does not increase the number of people who give up eating meat in Britain.
In Mr Benn's previous posting, international development, he was popular and respected.
Since he rushed back from a family holiday in Italy last Friday, he has been punctilious in conferring with his Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposite numbers, holding a briefing session with them on Saturday night, along with farming minister Lord Jeff Rooker. His immediate aim has been to ensure that the government is seen to have learned the lessons of the 2001 outbreak by ensuring the infection does not spread.
The speed with which animal movement bans have been imposed and tests undertaken, and the openness to vaccination as an option, denote a decisiveness lacking in 2001.
Mr Benn will know that, as far as the farming community is concerned, his department does not have great reserves of goodwill on which to draw. BSE, the 2001 epidemic and the more recent chaos at the Rural Payments Agency have ensured trust is low.
The department has had a reputation as a sleepy backwater. Various reorganisations have attempted to revitalise its efficiency. However, a review by the cabinet office this year found that "the present senior leadership tend to analyse and debate too much, rather than take decisions". The committee of MPs responsible for monitoring the department has been equally scathing recently about how it racked up a £200 million (€295 million) deficit from 2006 to 2007.