Foot And Mouth In The Forums
FROM AGW in the Anorak forums:
Well that’s the end of country walks for a while.
Defra has confirmed Foot and Mouth is in Britain again and expect country-wide restriction on everything.
It is to hoped this time Defra vets do not fly from infected farm to suspected farm in helicopters ensuring the disease has a better chance to spread. (True it happened)
Get ready for scenes like the one below again if animals are slaughtered and burned on farms rather than being shipped to plague pit sites.
The critical decision should have already been taken. Vaccinate or destroy. If we start to vaccinate the French and the rest of the world will stop eating our, beef, mutton and pork.
Farm suicide rates will soar in the next few weeks. Changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, following the EU’s eastern European intake, have meant bale-out subsidies are few and far between and farmers are hard-pressed. A third are thought to have given up completely after the last outbreak.
Because of the outbreaks location,near Guildford in the heavily populated South East of England, most vets now fear a potential farming disaster.
The latest development followed the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001 which had a devastating impact on the UK’s farming industry and tourism.
It led to the slaughter of between 6.5 million to 10 million animals, ruined many farmers and rural businesses, and is estimated to have cost the country’s economy up to £8.5bn
Prime Minister Gordon Brown cancelled his holiday and joined an emergency government meeting on the phone after being told the disease had been found.
A nationwide ban on the movement of all cattle, pigs and sheep was immediately put in place. All farms were also ordered to increase levels of biosecurity.
This is one of the busiest weekends of the year for agricultural shows with several scheduled to take place at venues across the country. All are likely to be cancelled.
Posted: 4th, August 2007 | In: Reviews Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
