I asked whether Dafoe thought a movie about a bloodsucking, diseased creature and the horror he unleashes on a 19th Century German town was the perfect antidote to a day of family festivities.

It is also a powerful driver of pain in animals and humans, and is released by cells from injured or diseased tissue.

Since the mid-1960s, microscopists have seen that axons can scrunch up to form beads when they are diseased or under other stress.

Mr O'Hara spent five weeks in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary during which time doctors cut away large pieces of diseased flesh in a desperate bid to stop the the necrotising fasciitis spreading beyond his arm.

He said the Kerman plant is operating normally with no service disruption, even with the heavy influx of diseased cattle.