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Another Foot & Mouth

Mike

Well-known member
U.K. Officials Confirm an Outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease
Wednesday, September 12, 2007


LONDON — A case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed at a British farm Wednesday, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Officials did not immediately confirm the report.

The disease was being investigated at the farm 30 miles from where an outbreak in August led to a mass slaughter of cattle stock.

Officials were investigating the suspected case and a slaughter of cattle is already under way, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said.

Officials have set up a 6-mile control zone, barring all animal movement around the affected area in Surrey, a county on the outskirts of London.

"The containment and eradication of foot-and-mouth disease is our top priority," Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said in a statement.

She said the disease had not been confirmed and officials were awaiting the results of laboratory tests.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will chair an emergency meeting of senior officials.

The August outbreak was centered near the government-funded Institute for Animal Health, a diagnostic laboratory, and Merial Animal Health, a British unit of the U.S.-French pharmaceutical firm Merial Ltd.

The laboratory uses live viruses for research, and Merial uses them to produce vaccines. Investigators believe the August outbreak originated from the site but was unable to determine whether it was from the government laboratory or Merial's vaccine factory.

Farmers said another outbreak would be a catastrophe to the industry, which has suffered a series of blows in recent years.

Six years ago a nationwide outbreak of the disease resulted in the slaughter of around 7 million sheep and cattle as government veterinary officials successfully halted the further spread of the disease.

The British agriculture industry estimated the disease led to losses of around in 8 billion pounds ($16 billion).

"Indications are that this could be a positive test, and if that's the case then it would be an absolute disaster for the farming industry that has worked so hard to eradicate the previous outbreak," National Farmers' Union president Peter Kendall told Sky News television

The European Commission said it had suspended plans to allow the full trade of live British animal exports to resume in November. The suspension was put in place following the August outbreak.

EU veterinary experts were meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to assess the situation and decide on a possible meat export ban.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
I Did notice that the F&M site is downwind from Heathrow airport. One plane passenger could have started this outbreak.
 

Kathy

Well-known member
Six years ago a nationwide outbreak of the disease resulted in the slaughter of around 7 million sheep and cattle as government veterinary officials successfully halted the further spread of the disease.

Burned these carcasses on Canadian cresote soaked railway ties dug up because the grain industry was put into the hands of a few, the country and town landmark elevators were torn down, and the lines deemed unnecessary or too costly.

I Did notice that the F&M site is downwind from Heathrow airport

Perhaps the sonic effects upon the cattle brain are causing protein aggregation??? Mark Purdey identified proximity to airfields as an environmental factor found with many BSE/vCJD clusters.

UK has many nuclear facilities and a nuclear reprocessing facility which emit radiation levels equivalent to over 300 reactors in one location. Prusiner, himself, identified uranium as a metal capable of nucleating prion protein crystals.

Foot and mouth will pop up here and there, and these animals will never be tested for BSE. Same situation as in Canada with Anthrax.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Foot and mouth spreads in UK

By Ahmed ElAmin
Reports on
foot and mouth
UK a high risk foot and mouth zone
The Philippines bans UK meat

18/09/2007 - Foot-and-mouth disease has spread to two more farms in the UK today, underlying fears that a EU-wide ban on the country's exports will be prolonged.


The new outbreak is yet another blow against the UK meat producers and processers, who were just starting to recover their markets after the end of ten year export ban on British beef due to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

The ban also takes an important source of supplies off the European market at a time when the price of meat is rising to account for the increased cost of feed.

Now producers and processors in the UK are gearing up for a severe reduction in production, and face fresh problems with sourcing as bans on livestock movements take effect around the country.

A movement ban of cattle, sheep, pigs and other ruminants has been imposed by regulators across the country.

The situation is so critical, that the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers cancelled an annual meeting this week, stating that the arrival of 10,000 of its members in one place would not be "irresponsible". a wise move.

The meat industry estimates a previous ban on exports that was lifted on 25 August cost industry about €2.7 million per day. That ban was implemented after a smaller outbreak of food and mouth occurred in an area about 50 kilometres south of the new case.

Yesterday government regulators confirmed that initial blood tests on clinically healthy sheep on a farm near the current outbreak suggest these have been exposed to foot and mouth. All animals on the premises are being slaughtered.

On 15 September regulators decided to slaughter pigs on a farm in close proximity to the two infected farms in Surrey as a precautionary measure, following inconclusive veterinary inspections of clinical signs.

On 12 September, the UK's chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, confirmed the presence of foot and mouth disease on holding in Surrey.

On 14 September a second adjacent farm was found to have infected livestock.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Stricken cattle had foot-and-mouth virus three weeks before latest outbreak
Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor of The Times

Sept 20/07
The foot-and-mouth virus is likely to have spread to the new outbreak area in Surrey more than three weeks ago and before the UK was declared free of the disease, according to a report today by Debby Reynolds, the government’s chief veterinary officer

The precise pattern of virus transmission is still unclear, but the cattle culled at the the latest stricken farm, The Klondyke, at Virginia Water, carried lesions that were more than ten days old. Both cattle and sheep from the farm also had antibodies for the virus, which shows the infection is as old as three weeks.

The findings were reported as government vets investigated another suspected case of the virus today, in a bull in Solihull, in the West Midlands. Blood samples have been taken from the animal, which is part of a small herd, and a temporary control zone imposed around the premises.

The news created alarm among farmers about the possibility that the virus had spread so far outside Surrey.


New foot-and-mouth discovery spreads fear
EU scorns British foot and mouth errors
The Times reported on Saturday that lesions on cattle slaughtered at Stroude Farm, Egham, also had lesions that were ten days old.

Debby Reynolds, the government’s chief veterinary officer, today confirmed the age of the lesions and called on all cattle farmers to be extra vigilant with their animals and to check them at least twice a day, particularly those in the Surrey area.

All other animal-keepers were reminded that they have a legal responsibility to check the health of their animals daily.

The public appeal to farmers to show more diligence reflects concern inside the Government that the re-emergence of the outbreak may be attributed to farmers missing the disease or failing to recognise the symptoms. Dr Reynolds is adamant that there was nothing peculiar about the strain of this virus that would have made it difficult for farmers to spot symptoms in cattle — such as blistering around the mouth and lameness.

Part of the problem in the Surrey area is that most farms are small-scale or hobby farms. There is no large-scale dairy herd, except for the Queen’s Jerseys at the Royal Home Farms estate in the Windsor Great Park, where animals are milked and inspected twice daily.

Most of the cattle in the area are being reared for beef and are often kept on fields a long way from farm premises. These may not be as checked regularly, and if they were outside the surveillance zone created after the August outbreak checks may not have been robust.

It is feasible that any farmer in breach of welfare codes could face prosecution from trading standards officers.

Veterinary epidemiologists are still working out the most plausible link between the three new outbreaks in the past week and the original two cases in Normandy. A report is due before the weekend.

Ernest Ward, of Stroude Farm, and John and Sally Hepplethwaite, who own the Klondyke farm, are said by neighbours to take good care of their animals. There is even speculation locally that one of them had been subject to veterinary inspection during August and been cleared of any disease.

Some Surrey residents are convinced that transmission was from the movement of soil by contractors’ lorries from Pirbright scientific research centre that was contaminated with virus. In cool weather the virus can last in soil for about 28 days and so this route of transmission is possible.

One theory is that topsoil from Pirbright was used on a BMX track near Runnymede and various vehicle movements may have spread the disease to farmland.

The number of lorry movements and companies contracted to work on the site have not been revealed. The names of the haulage companies are also being kept secret over fears they could be targets for animal rights activists.

Dr Reynolds said today that the two main lines of inquiry for the resurgence of the disease were environmental contamination or latent infection in animals.

Peter Ainsworth, Conservative Rural Affairs spokesman, said that news that the animals were infected with disease when the UK was given the all clear was “extremely alarming”. He said: “This news is a very worrying development since it increases the possibility that the disease has spread.”

Dr Reynolds defended the decision to lift disease restrictions in Surrey and announce an all-clear, saying that officials had worked in line with regulations and the facts they had at the time.

She also hinted that it may be possible to relax movement restrictions in other parts of the country within days. Upland farmers in particular are worried about the welfare of their animals as grazing pastures are bare and they need to be moved to lowland farms for the winter.
 

MO STOCKER

Well-known member
Who stands the loss on a deal like this? Does the government pay the value of the animals? Does the lab have some liability? Just wondering.
 

Mike

Well-known member
MO STOCKER said:
Who stands the loss on a deal like this? Does the government pay the value of the animals? Does the lab have some liability? Just wondering.

Government will pay a nominal fee for the cows subject to euthanization, same as they will here.

Insurance doesn't pay for government ordered kills.
 
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