The peace of lush, rural landscape in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province disguises the anxiety that is stalking the land. This is the epicentre of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has – in the past year – swept across eight of the country's nine provinces, devastating animal herds, with many cattle being killed to halt its spread. Farmers are fearful that they could lose their livelihoods altogether as other countries take action and stop the import of South African animal products.