RE:How BSE information is devastating the meat industry

Originally from: frances fish
                        
A good point Brent. If they do not know the cause of BSE how can they give advice as to how to prevent it ? They can't,of course. The same augument is entirely valid for Scrapie eradication in the National Sheep Flock. If you look at the figures, there are certain hot-spots which stand out like sore thumbs. Shetland is one of these. Why are the figures so high on Shetland ? What makes sheep there get Scrapie as opposed to other areas of the UK ? Why are they spending so much money, money which could be put to so much better use, on a disease that has been around so long and, all admit, has no human implications at all ? Is their budget too high, that they can afford to throw such amounts around ? Something like a hundred and twenty million up to the fourth year of the,now,infamous, National Scrapie Plan. Is that a gravy train or what ? 2 labs being used, one a private lab whose directors must be rubbing their hands in glee at the direction Defra is taking this. Perhaps, if Gordon Brown is looking for savings,and remembering that reorganisation (rationalisation ?) of Defra is imminent, has it already been noted that they are bad house keepers and wasters of public money on a large scale ? On a lesser note, and with reference to an interesting leaflet which landed on our mat from Defra on eartagging sheep and goats,just HOW do you get 3 eartags in a sheeps ears ?This is the maximum allowed, you (and the sheep) will be glad to hear. Who,did they say, advises them on animal welfare ? If it is, as I suspect, the State Vet. Service, then unsurprisingly, they are also due for a well- overdue service and culling of the deadwood. They should be able to have the mother and father of bonfires with the prunings,hope we are all invited,but think it unlikely. Frances
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Originally from: Ron
                        
Don't you believe it, Francis, we bought two shearlings last year with FOUR eartags in. One has a badly torn ear, so I've removed all her tags until the ear improves. The other has managed to lose one tag, unfortunately she is rather skittish, so we are awaiting a suitable time to remove the other three, and retag with a light weight tag. All the tags were full size!

Ron.