The Poultry Keeper

CP · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:03 pm Post subject:

Test results negative so far in Kent & Chessington World of Adventure. Smile

Welsh Duck · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:07 pm Post subject:

thats good news

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6807 Location: isle of lewis

cattle in wales neg as well

CP · Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:19 pm Post subject:

More good news. Wink

(from Yahoo news)

Britain will lift protection zones Friday around two farms where foot and mouth disease was confirmed last month, the country's environment department said.

While the three kilometre protection zones around the holdings will be scrapped from noon (1100 GMT), officials are also imposing a five kilometre biosecurity area around a laboratory site at Pirbright, Surrey, southern England.

The site, which houses the government's Institute for Animal Health and a private animals vaccine firm, is only a few miles (kilometres) from the farms which were infected and officials say it is likely to be the outbreak's source.

A 10-kilometre surveillance zone remains in place in Surrey, south-west of London.

Protection zones impose tight restrictions on animal movement and allow officials to close footpaths.

Surveillance zones are more relaxed and permit the monitoring of animals to make sure that foot and mouth has not spread.

A partial relaxation of the ban on the movement on livestock outside the surveillance zone came into effect Friday, with farmers now allowed to take animals directly to slaughterhouses.

A complete ban on animal movements was imposed after the virus was confirmed in cattle on the first farm on August 3, with nearly 600 animals slaughtered so far as a precaution.

European Union nations on Thursday agreed to lift an export ban on British meat and livestock imposed after the outbreak, with only exports of products from within the surveillance zone still prohibited.

British farmers were keen to avoid a repeat of the costly 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, which cost the national economy about eight billion pounds while devastating the agriculture sector.

CP · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:27 pm Post subject:

Some really good news!
http://tinyurl.com/2jkmb4

cookie88 · Joined: 08 Sep 2007 Posts: 302 Location: ISLE OF LEWIS

bad news guys its back

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6990913.stm

Attila The Hen · Joined: 19 Sep 2005 Posts: 389 Location: Shetland

Hold tight... here we go again.

The BBC are being a little preemptive in their reportage on the above link - at the time of writing, the outbreak has not been confirmed as FMD. However, my sources at the SVS tell me that the clinical signs present in 40% of the herd are 100% consistent with FMD, and expect that the blood tests due back anytime now will confirm this.

Apparently the symptoms in this latest case first started to manifest themelves in the herd 4 days ago... Bear in mind also that the distance from the last confirmed outbreak (approx 10 miles), the time since the last confirmed outbreak (much longer than the in vivo incubation period), and the flurry of livestock movements that will have followed the easing of movement restrictions could all mean that there has been opportunities for it to spread before this diagnosis.

Pray god I'm proved wrong.

Attila

cookie88 · Joined: 08 Sep 2007 Posts: 302 Location: ISLE OF LEWIS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6991119.stm

another test in scotland

CP · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:30 pm Post subject:

Is there a reason why the Government can't just vaccinate/innoculate the entire UK cow population? Apart from the cost & the logistics of doing every single animal, of course.

Is the drug effective against all F&M or is it like 'flu & keeps changing? Confused

Attila The Hen · Joined: 19 Sep 2005 Posts: 389 Location: Shetland

One good reason - if an innoculation programme is instigated, it'll then be 6 months before any livestock or meat can be exported. Major economic impact for farmers. Plus you can't just do cows - if innoculation is to be meaningful, you need to include all animals susceptible to the disease in question - so pigs, sheep, goats...

And then there's the knotty problem of the burgeoning (particularly in the south-east) UK deer population.

So... economic and practical problems with innoculation.

Very much a last resort.

Attila

Attila The Hen · Joined: 19 Sep 2005 Posts: 389 Location: Shetland

Forgot to say re the Lanarkshire sheep - I hear it's an OMG, so hopefully that'll prove to be the case. Sheep are so prone to lesions and every hellish complaint under the sun...

Attila

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6807 Location: isle of lewis

yep they do it in the south american countries though and we still import
although last time the eu was thinking about stepping in if it spread and making the british goverment vac

lets just hope ,this is a one off Pray

CP · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the explanation Attila. Knew there must be a proper reason. I know it's always been talked about but no one's ever said why it is only as a last resort. (at least not that I'd heard.)

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1316 Location: Leicestershire

Also - as with influenza, the virus mutates and so what is effective against one strain won't be against the next mutation, the outbreak from Pirbright was the strain from the 1967 outbreak which was also much less virulent than the 2001 outbreak.

Because we are an Island nation the slaughter policy is the most effective route if only we were biosecure The 1967 outbreak was thought to have been imported in on some dodgy hides and initially spread by birds and wildlife from an open dump. Heaven knows how the 2001 outbreak got here, but the government knew it was coming as it had been slowly edging this way down the commercial routes for a few years, just like bird flu.

Itsybitsy

Attila The Hen · Joined: 19 Sep 2005 Posts: 389 Location: Shetland