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virulent disease, my foot nm

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Referencevirulent disease, my foot nm

Nigel Cannings 03 March 2002 15:16

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.
                        

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ReferenceRe: virulent disease, my foot nm

Nigel Cannings 03 March 2002 16:09

Originally from: Mary Critchley
                        
I don't understand your last paragraph. What was the issue sidestepped by your NFU friend? The contiguous cull or vaccination?

Mary

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ReferenceRe: virulent disease, my foot nm

Nigel Cannings 03 March 2002 15:42

Originally from: Susan Staunton
                        
Quite so Mary and mention of Dr Kitching brings me back to a point I tried to make some months back. I personally believe that we muddied the waters by perhaps seeming to argue more vociferously in favour of vaccination than against the contiguous cull. We may believe, indeed we may categorically know, that vaccination works, but it still the subject of national restrictions. Despite Prof. Brown's work the official USDA view is still anti, AFFA were still saying only recently that more work had to be done on diagnostic testing and Dr Kitching himself is no pro vaccinator. However, Pirbright are the world reference laboratory wrt FMD. Two of their Doctors, Knowles and Samuels, lectured on this very strain at Europic in Rome in May 2000 and they are unequivocal that the contiguous cull was a step too far. It seemed to me almost from the time we got Donaldson's report back in May last year that perhaps we should have put far more emphasis on this than on the vaccination notion, at least in terms of what was going on at that time. Less contiguous culling would have equalled more time and facilities for testing "infected" animals which would have – as we have witnessed time and time again with testing – equalled fewer animals testing postive which would have equalled fewer animals being killed. Under those circumstances it would have been hoped that all animals needing to be slaughtered could have been done so humanely and then disposed of adequately and safely.
Although the NFU are now backing the introduction of vaccination as at least part of any future global strategy to deal with FMD whenever I raised the matter of the flawed contiguous cull with my friend there he used to sidestep the issue. If we had really all rallied together under this rather than fragmenting I believe this is the issue is the one which would have caused the greatest official embarrassment all round – ie just why did they choose Anderson's route to go down rather than Pirbright's?

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ReferenceRe: virulent disease, my foot nm

Nigel Cannings 03 March 2002 16:30

Originally from: Susan Staunton
                        
The contiguous cull. He was quite happy to discuss why Prof Brown couldnt be taken too seriously etc. etc. but whenever I tried to bring up the matter of the flawed contiguous cull he always seemed to overlook that one! I suppose I should have done a Robin "will you answer the question" Day impersonation, but I sort of thought it was better to keep the dialogue going.

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