Foot and Mouth Outbreak

[Chipstick]

Not again

Breaking news on News24 - its in Surrey

Agreed megalegs. I just don't get the "let's present the news from........." thing that happens now on a regular basis. Doesn't add anything imho and as you say in this case just doesn't seem appropriate.

Just hot here!!!

oh shit shit shit.I was nearly in tears watching the news this morning.I really hope the government doesn't f up like it did last time.It was like living through a nightmare.

I've a horrible sense of deja vu,it was an awful wet spring last time & we had animals in sodden,muddy fields that we were unable to move to drier ground.

I can't believe its back again.

They've put a nationwide ban on the movement of animals quickly this time so hopefully that will restrict it. Our area was affected last time, the fires were horrible, the smell was sickening. Dh worked for DEFRA at the time and was putting in 20 hour days. Bit worse this time as we live on a small holding and have sheep plus next door has cattle.

last time i was teaching in an agricultural area and loads of the kids didn't come to the school for weeks to stop the spread, we had disinfectant mats everywhere

DH and I were talking about this last night, and he said "Who needs terrorists - there are people flooded out of their homes, roads at a standstill because of floods, crops ruined because of floods - thus putting the price of basic fruit and veg up, bird flu and now this".
Good point.
I really hope they handle this better, I phoned a friend of ours who has a farm in Scotland - they lost everything last time, and he is just hoping they contain it

We are surrounded by beef and dairy herds here. It didn't get down here last time but my neighbour and I were both expecting our DS2's. She was terrified it would reach them and she would be stuck on the farm on her due date. Her DH even bought a book about emergency home delivery.

Fuck fuck fuck. I'm now running around putting up signs, setting up disinfection buckets at the gate and making sure we've got enough feed to get us through the next couple of months so we don't need to take any further deliveries. Oh, and checking all livestock movement books are up to date or DEFRA will slaughter on the spot if they do a spot inspection. (I'm in the West Country so should be ok, but better to be safe than sorry....)

God what a bloody awful year for farmers. The crops are ruined through flooding and the weather, there's no silage to speak of and now this. Food prices are going to go through the roof. And farmers are going to get about 1% sympathy from the Great British Public who don't give a shit where their food comes from as long as its cheap. (with the honourable exceptions of Expat et al, of course)

Oh BB - it really seems that our farmers never get a break. Many of our friends are farmers and they are all struggling, both the big but especially the small. I see how hard my neighbours work for very little gain. If F&M gets here they will, like so many others, be finished. Heartbreaking.

Let's hope to God it can be controlled quickly this time.

Lets hope the government deal with it better this time and the EU doesnt ban exports from GB

I hope as expat says it will enourage more people to buy british and support our farmers Its the best meat you can buy anyway

I lived in a rural comunity last time too and the pits of fire was heartbreaking to watch and the smell dreadful but that ws nothing to wathing friends ad family lose all thier animals

Boingboing lets hope its contained this time wishing you all the best

Well fortunately, we are tiny. Not exactly hobby, but certainly not large scale, so it would be heartbreaking but it wouldn't be the end of our livelihood in a worst case scenario. But we are surrounded by 'real' farmers who struggle enough in normal circumstances. All we can do is pray, and hope that DEFRA and the government don't make as a big a cock up as they did last time.

It looks like they are looking into the possibility of vaccination

www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/04/foot.and.mouth.ap/index.html

This is hopeful!

oh god not again. Lets hope they can contain it this time and that the farm where it started has a responsible farmer. I seem to remember the first time that the farmer at the source of the outbreak knew he had foot and mouth in his herd but didn't want to lose money so he sold his herd and thus it spead.

My dad heard it was a beef rearing unit (ie where cows are fed and reared and go straight to slaughter). He feels that if that's true and that the disease came in through foreign feed or similar then it should be easy to contain.

I don't think cattle can get it from feed (pigs can because they eat meat and if it's not properly cooked the virus isn't killed).

It's more likely that an infected animal (or animals) was bought in, and they have to find which one and where from and where the rest of that batch of animals went.

This is informative about control, vaccination etc.

oh holy crap. North Yorks here....many farmers only just up on their feet again after the last outbreak. Some never got back on their feet

oh bloody hell. again?!?

DH also tells me it's a 'finishing' herd so they go direct to slaughter. But he also said that apparently they haven't had an 'on' movement in a few weeks, so thinks it's possible it could have spread from a neighbouring farm. God I hope not. But at least it's been jumped on immediately with the standstill order. Last time it took an entire week.

Completely random thought here but the farm is not that far from the lab where all the testing was done by defra..........cat 4 filter failure????????? Highly unlikely though! It's probably not even air bourne.

Boing- it is nearly a week though. The suspected outbreak was on Tuesday- it's taken them tilL Saturday (5 days) to ban movement. I know they had to confirm it an the tests take time but they could have put a movement ban in place sooner

Much quicker than that, Pixiefish, unless the media have it wrong - according to both the BBC & the Guardian, symptoms were reported "late on Thursday evening" and restrictions imposed on the farm immediately, and national livestock movement restrictions brought in Friday night.

ah Thursday- i read it as teusday- durh

Oh crap! This is just down the road from us, I can't believe it is happening. I vividly remember the scenes from the previous outbreak, how how how can this happen again?

Fwiw I always try to buy local. Not always easy, but I do try.

CarGirl...you might have been right, they've just said on the News that the strain is one found in vaccines.....

Oooops - knew I shouldn't have posted my theory - don't tell anyone it was me!!!!!!