Hopefully then, with such good business skills, they are well insured to pay out compensation to the farmers asap should they be found to be at fault here. :)

Can somebody out there please explain to me why we throw up our hands in horror at the very mention of foot and mouth disease. It isn't fatal to animals, it can't be passed on to humans, it doesn't affect the meat or the milk. It's rife in Argentina and the cattle and sheep recover from it and then have a degree of immunity.

You are right it is rarely fatal but there is no doubt much suffering occurs.  Foot infections commonly occur witch can lead to slaughter to prevent suffering.  On the economic side, the animals stop eating because of the pain and loose condition, then can also become sterile and suffer heart disease so farmers can be severly affected even if the animals are not slaughtered.  Do you not think all this was considered in 2001? :)

Would you want to eat the animals that had been heavily treated with drugs over and over again?

http://www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth/about/index.htm

Check out the official site regarding foot and mouth, there you will see it can be fatal to young animals, and just how serious this disease is in connection with all the cloven footed animals, our farming industry as a whole, and how it affects our exports.

I can't see any problem about anything being manufactured here that's intended for export only. It happens in all industries.

Has anything been mentioned yet how this has happened as haven't had chance to see the news over the last couple of days ? Just wondered if anybody had mentioned the possibility of a security breach of a deliberate leak of the virus maybe as this has crossed my mind :)

Not that I have seen :)  The prime suspects so far seem to be facilities suffering from lack of funding or flood damage but it is still under investigation.

last nights news said flood damage was not thought to be the cause, it may have been 'carried out' on a person, deliberate or not has not been sussed yet. they were testing it outside one report suggested, also that it could have been washed down the drains from the labs. I gather the Goven side is back testing, but the drug company side is still not allowed.

on the vido clip just seen my next door neighbour

i am due to go to an agricultural show this weekend and they have cancelled all the cows and sheep classes, i am supposed to be going for the breed and agility part of the show, but there is a meeting on friday by defra to say if the show can go ahead,
carolann

I just can't believe that footpaths are still open in the area of the outbreaks.  I had asssumed that they were closed in the immediate area, but it appears that they are still open.  And transporting the carcases across the country to Frome??  It doesn't sound like the Government are trying to stop the spread of this horrible disease.

Can I reiterate my plea to people to use footbaths of disinfectant for their footwear, which will probably be on most footpaths by now.

Edited to add:  And now they're talking about the possibility of a third infected farm in the area.  Poor people and animals.

Last time the Goverment got a great deal of grief about burning in the open air if you remember.

I do remember, Isabel, but there is an incinerator in the area, I believe.  And it looked like the lorries that moved the carcases were just covered with tarpaulin (sp??).

As I remember from last time not all incinerators are of the necessary spec to do this work.  I'm not sure, as a respiratory disease, what the risk is from dead, covered animals, but it was certainly something that was utilised last time so I would imagine, if it wasn't well evaluated at the time, it would have been in the aftermath.

And it looked like the lorries that moved the carcases were just covered with tarpaulin

Thats right, hardly a safe way to carry, and the disease stays on whatever it comes in contact with, so the lorries and sheets will have to be exceptionally well cleaned to stop any contamination coming from them.

There's bad news this morning - husband Richard's job is to liaise with farmers, and this is his area.   The new outbreak is confirmed as F&M today, and the farmer has a lot of land spread all round Surrey

Working tests this weekend have been cancelled in our area - the least we can do.....

Jo

Good for you, it's a shame but the farmers need all the help and support they can get.

We had offered some of our land for use for training for working trials.  But that is on hold for the time being.

> I just can't believe that footpaths are still open in the area of the outbreaks.

That surprised me as well. I would have thought that after last time there would have been very stringent measures taken very quickly in all areas local to affected cattle or where animals from that area might have moved to over the past few weeks. Though I'm sure I saw on the news signs about paths being closed - presumably they are at least closed in the area most local to the outbreaks?

From what I can tell, it's only the footpaths that actually run through the affected farms that have been closed.  I would have expected ALL the footpaths within the inner ring, at the very least, to have been closed. 

Yes, I would have expected it to be all the footpaths within the inner ring, I thought they must be considering the ones further afield....

Where we walk is within the surveillance area and there are notices up informing people of areas they are not allowed to go (as there is a farm on the outskirts of the common).

where about are you,?? ice cosmos

i am in the red zone and no foot paths are close here.

but the entrance on most farms, horse stable have straw down before going in and a bucket out side to,
i was walk the dogs yesterday in ash green where there are stable and she got goats as well the dogs where barking when i look there where two vets in their blue boilsuit going into the grounds,
finger cross.

very very sad news. British farmers have been hit so badly this year with the weather causing so much damage to  crops .  Hopefully this time the F&M was caught in time.