Originally from: Bill
                        
Pen-side testing would be largely a waste of time because antibody cannot be detected for at least five days, and anything up to 21 days, post infectiion. (A fact that was admitted by Lord Whitty in in a letter dated 20 November 2002.)

"Serosurveillance was not begun until at least 21 days after preliminary cleansing and disinfection of the infected premises had been completed. I hope this reassures Mr. Snape that DEFRA's veterinary advisors are aware of the time it takes for antibodies to be produced in response to FMD infection and the testing regime took account of this".

The most important aspect of FMD spread is however still denied by all the so-called "experts", spread by humans as BIOLOGICAL CARRIERS. For whatever reason this method of transmission has been progressively edited out of FMD reference books, finally disappearing altogether from the ninth edition of Radostits, Blood, and Gay (the reference book used by DEFRA) which was published in 2000.