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its a terrible time of year - terrible for the farming community. - there are animals stuck in markets, farmers stuck away from home

on a personal note, we have just arranged to borrow a ram for a month, to tup our ewes, and that wont be happening now, and if the restrictions are lifted at the first possible date, it will be too late as the ram owners will want the ram for their own ewes by then

so thats probably no lambs for us next year.

Bit of a nieve question- how do the authorities communicate a ban on transport of animals. I can imagine alot of farmers not getting in to watch the news twice day and missing the news altogether some days- I certainly miss it???

in my experience they dont.

you hear about it on the news, or more likely through other people. peoiple with animals at market probably heard when the market shut its gates..

this latest outbreak made it to the BBC before the DEFRA website... pathetic

and even though I have a CPH and a flock number and did the movement records when i got the sheep etc.. they have not written to me once about the FMD outbreak. it would appear the onus is on me to be up to date with the current rules.

Thats pretty unfair, I can imagine not all farmers have computers and access to DEFRA website anyway....I came home from work yesterday and there were animals being transported on teh A14 that runs along side me, and the news said there was a ban on transport- hence the question!

I can imagine farmers wanting to see the news and check now but for the first outbreak....

sheep from Perthshire being tested

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6991119.stm

Lot of testing will be being over zealous, before anyone points that out, but better to be safe than sorry!

Peggy Sue wrote:Bit of a nieve question- how do the authorities communicate a ban on transport of animals. I can imagine alot of farmers not getting in to watch the news twice day and missing the news altogether some days- I certainly miss it???

A friend said she had a phone message left for her by SEERAD.

This might be a silly question, but i've been burning to ask it:

In other countries, animals are not vaccinated for F&M, like Africa for example.

Can F&M be cured with antibiotics? (obviously, this would raise questions about organic farming).
What is the effect on the animal? I understand that its not a nice disease for the animal to suffer from, but doesn it affect the eatability of the meat?
If a human, dog, cat or other meat eating animal were to eat meat from an animal suffering with F&M, what would it do?

the.fee.fairy wrote:Can F&M be cured with antibiotics? (obviously, this would raise questions about organic farming).
What is the effect on the animal? I understand that its not a nice disease for the animal to suffer from, but doesn it affect the eatability of the meat?
If a human, dog, cat or other meat eating animal were to eat meat from an animal suffering with F&M, what would it do?

It's a virus, not a bacteria, so antibiotics have no effect. Even the vaccine is limited in its role as there virus takes a number of forms and does mutate. So the vaccine has to be tailored to combat the most likely forms of the virus. (It's like the flu vaccine for humans - scientists have to work out the most likely forms of the virus, develop the vaccine for that and then hope nothing new comes along.)

Also, vaccinations have to be repeated at regular intervals to maintain immunity - the length of time it remains effective is species dependent.

Cooking kills the FMD virus - and it's extremely difficult for the virus to cross to humans.

FMD is primarily a disease of cloven-hoofed animals - cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and deer, but it also affects hedgehogs, rats, alpacas, llamas and elephants.

Have a look at my earlier post in this threat (September 3).

Thanks Stoney

So...is F&M a killer? Even if treated at the time of the outbreak? Is that why the livestock are being culled?

Older and healthy livestock generally survive - but they suffer quite a bit in the process. Younger or less resistant animals will die.

the.fee.fairy wrote:Thanks Stoney

So...is F&M a killer? Even if treated at the time of the outbreak? Is that why the livestock are being culled?

It depends on the strain of the virus and, as Ina says, the age of the livestock. And despite what some people say, it does affect sheep with up to 70% of lambs dying.

Have a look at DEFRA's Q&A, the Merck Veterinary Journal's FMD page, the World Organisation for Animal Health FMD diease card (PDF) and for the independent, informed layperson's view, Warmwell.