Oh NO! Not again...Foot & Mouth

[Millymollymandy]

How du know that about the birds having to be kept in again M3?

On Total France! There's a thread about it and some links to one of the dept's blurb about it - I think it was Charente. It did say either inside or under netting, which is a bit strange, because previously netting wasn't allowed (wild birds can poop through netting!). Anyway it all started up again cos some swans in Moselle were found with it.... other side of the country of course!

[Thomzo]

OK - so there's foot and mouth in the countryside. A very contagious disease spread by air and carried on shoes, car tyres etc.

So WHY are the TV crews yet again charging around the countryside interviewing farmers on their own land. Surely this is a potential way of spreading the contamination?

3M - I hope your birds are OK and that the restrictions are lifted soon. Poor things will be really frustrated if locked up in this weather.

Zoe

[Millymollymandy]

I'm not locking them up Thomzo! You must be joking! When in Rome..............

[Thomzo]

I must admit I couldn't do it to mine either. I felt guilty putting them to bed at 5.30 last night cos I was going out for the evening. If the only outbreak is on the other side of France surely the risk of yours being infected must be very slim? The stress and discomfort that it would cause them would far outweigh the slight chance that they might catch something.

Zoe

[ina]

So WHY are the TV crews yet again charging around the countryside interviewing farmers on their own land. Surely this is a potential way of spreading the contamination?

I'm pretty sure they are not allowed to do that within the exclusion zone...

[Jack]

Gidday

Well the TV crews might be working with the eco-terrorists who released it in the first place.

[QuakerBear]

I'm utterley dismayed by the nonsense in the media. I'm glad everyone here's being so calm and sensible.

God bless and keep you and your animals.

[baldowrie]

the media do a lot of hype but also if were not for them then the word would not have spread so rapidly

[QuakerBear]

It was less the 'hype' of the media, more their inacuracy. E.g. the IAH is mainly funded by the BBSRC, it is not "a government lab", the IAH and Merial don't have stocks of 'numerous other desieses' and they're not conducting dangerous experiments. I hate the way science is portrayed by the ignorant media.

There, I'm not being rude or angry towards anyone here, honestly, I'm just so frustrated. Please don't listen to what you are reading/watching in the media. They are getting so much wrong.

Farmers and the IAH have always had such a good relationship I don't want the media to destroy that.

[baldowrie]

think any one sensible will look into the incident further themselves but the point is they got the word out to a number in under 24 hours...which is a good thing

[Peggy Sue]

I was interested when I went to Argentina 2 years ago to an Estancia. I saw them vaccinating for F&M, they said it was all routine but the estancias are so very vast there is no chance of rounding up absolutley every cow so a few get missed.

The beef was the niceset I've every experienced, I ate beef that was walking around a few hours earlier, it just walked behind the shed and was slaughtered. it had the most wonderful life in the wilderness, so different to our cattle herded in and out of cattle trucks, from cramped yards deep in soiled straw all winter to small paddocks with muddy gateways. I used to be a veggie and I often feel I will do again to object to the way animals are just not considered here- no wonder we have so many diseases! The press scare us from eating Argentine beef in fear of F&M but these cattle are definitely as nature intended.

Not sure you should from an food miles point of view here but shame we can't learn something...

[Silver Ether]

Sorry if this is a stupid question ... but if I dont ask I will never know and could remain stupid ...

This research place makes vaccines ? who uses them if we keep getting foot and mouth ...
If not used why is the place making them.

part two ...

why do farmers in Europe not have to slaughter their animals like out farmers do? thats what I have been told anyway so I want to get the info clear and from folks who are likey to know because you have animals that it affects.

Waits while eyes roll ...

[Muddypause]

Not really an answer to your questions, but from what I understand (or think I do - this leaves me wide open to error), if you vaccinate an animal against F&M, them that animal won't succumb to the disease, but it can still carry it. This actually makes the disease far more difficult to monitor and control, because it can become endemic without it showing. This means that once you start using vaccinations, you will have to continue vaccinating every cloven hoofed animal forever.

This also has implication for the export market - an F&M-free country would not accept vaccinated animals because they may be carriers.

AIUI, it is generally thought that we are better off, both in terms of animal welfare and economics (mainly the latter, I suspect), if we don't resort to using vaccinations, and strive to maintain our F&M-free status.

But given that the disease is so easily transmitted, and the preferred way to control it is mass slaughter, a lot of people are understandably pretty jumpy about it. And while it is easy to theorise about it, the call for vaccination is never far away.

[Silver Ether]

ok I can see the "logic" behind that ... from becoming unknown carriers to the economics ... but other countries control in the same way..

[Peggy Sue]

From what I understand every country has it's own policy from ignoring it and pretending it doesn't happen (France! Sorry to be contraversial but I ahve it from good sources) to accepting it and doing all they can by vaccinating routinely (Argentina).

It's interesting actually talking to farmers from other countries, they tell you the scams happening here. There is a theory all that culling last time was unnecesary, jsut needed to be done for other econmomic reasons??

We will never knowther truth between the media and the politicians sadly.