Originally from: Mary Critchley
                        
http://www.warmwell.com

 Sunday March 3 2002

Mar 3 ~ Hawnby is negative
– as we knew it would be. The"experienced vet" whose dire prognostications about the "clinical symptoms" on the slaughtered sheep just shows once again what a notoriously difficult disease this is to diagnose in sheep. We have been saying so for months. Dr Paul Kitching has been saying so for months. There is no one so deaf as Defra....but none so ready to listen as the British media when Defra cries "Wolf!"

Mar 3 ~ Yorkshire farm's foot-and-mouth tests prove negative reports Ananova "No traces of foot-and-mouth disease have been found at a North Yorkshire farm. A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed the farm in Hawnby, has been given the all-clear. A ban on livestock movements within a five-mile radius is to be lifted. Two sheep at the farm were found to have lacerations in their mouths. Initial tests showed it was not the foot-and-mouth virus and Defra says exhaustive testing has confirmed the original finding. Defra says separate restrictions on farms which supplied sheep to St Agnes Farm, in Hawnby, will also be lifted. Animal Health Minister Elliott Morley said: "We must take no chances whatsoever with this virulent disease. "This episode underlines the need for farmers and vets to continue to be vigilant and to look out for the signs of the disease and to report any signs to Defra." This episode underlines no such thing. It merely shows how convenient this "virulent" disease has proved to an inept government who care nothing for animal welfare and ride roughshod over the human rights of anyone who dares to stand in their way.