Crossword Genius

Sickness and diarrhoea at first is moderate (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

distemper

'sickness' is the definition.
(distemper is a kind of sickness)

'diarrhoea at first is moderate' is the wordplay.
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
'moderate' becomes 'temper' ('temper' can be a synonym of 'moderate').
The first letter of 'diarrhoea' is 'd'.
'd'+'is'+'temper'='DISTEMPER'

'and' is the link.

(Other definitions for distemper that I've seen before include "Water-based paint" , "Paint - dog disease" , "Infectious disease of animals" , "Sickness" , "Viral infection < found in lab" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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