FMD- Culling... please can someone explain?

PapaFrita

PapaFrita

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 August 2005
Messages
25,923
Location
Argggggentina at the moment
pilar-larcade.com
Ok, here in Argentina there are sporadic outbreaks of FMD and yet it hardly gets any press as it's not considered a big deal. There have never been any mass cullings and as I understand it, animals can and do recover (but if someone would like to correct me, please do)
I was wondering whether the huge distances between farms in Argentina mean it's much easier to contain the disease? I would also like to know what would've happened if the cullings in the UK in 2001 hadn't taken place, and incidentally, isn't there a vaccine??
I'm utterly baffled.
 
Not 100% sure but I think its something to do with food export? I think if our national herd is vaccinated for FMD then we lose our FMD free status?
There is my train of thought that says that the government are trying to remove every aspect of livestock farming from the country, so they can build more free housing for illegal immigrants and teenage mothers, on the former farms!
 
Oh, I sort of get it.. (the bit about meat export) BUT not entirely. So the meat is vaccinated against FMD... so what happens? Does it taste bad, make you ill, what what??
confused.gif

It does seem that the government is trying to screw farmers of business, doesn't it? Never mind... they can always increase taxes, eh??!!!
 
Papafrita - you raise some very interesting points. Yes, I have read somewhere that infected animals don't necessarily die from the desease. Probably the distances between the farms where you are would make quite a bit of difference.

As far as vaccine is concerned - this could well be the whole cause of this outbreak. Apparently this particular strain of FMD is in the process of being cultivated as a vaccine at Gov. Laboratories at Pirbright which is only a few miles from the infected farm. This sounds just too stupid to be true, but ....
mad.gif
mad.gif
mad.gif
 
If an immigrant is illegal, they don't register on the system and therefore don't get housing....

But that's beside the point. According to the Defra website it's because there would be a massive animal welfare problem if they let the virus run it's course. I wonder whether it's because of the close proximity of farms and animals, so it would spread quicker?
 
Ok, now I could be completely wrong about this but I've been told FMD is like flu for susceptible animals. So there are lots of fairly sick animals (If I'm being hopelessly simplistic pleeease explain!) which will most likely recover... is this worse than killing them all?
frown.gif
confused.gif
 
From the Defra site:

"2.2 Under the new Directive, the slaughter of susceptible animals on
infected premises and those identified as “dangerous contacts” remains the
principal tool for tackling an FMD outbreak. The Directive rejects a return to
prophylactic (routine) vaccination - which has been banned across the EU
since 1992 - but places greater emphasis on emergency vaccination, which
has now moved to the forefront of disease control strategies, as an adjunct to
the basic slaughter policy."

Assuming this article is up to date and correct, it looks as though the EU have banned vaccination not the UK government.
 
I don't know enough about it to comment, done some reading and am a scientist so this is more me trying to put together what i've read, but I think because it spreads so quickly it would mean too many animals would be very sick for the Govt/whoever to be able to cope with.

From the DEFRA website:

What are the effects of FMD?
The disease is rarely fatal, except in the case of very young animals, which may die without showing any symptoms. Exceptionally, a severe form of the disease may cause sudden deaths among older stock.

The after-effects of FMD are serious. Affected animals lose condition and secondary bacterial infections may prolong convalescence. The most serious effects of the disease however are seen in dairy cattle. Loss of milk yield will certainly be experienced. Chronic mastitis may develop and the value of a cow is permanently reduced. Abortion, sterility and chronic lameness are commonplace and in some cases chronic heart disease occurs.

 
If you think of the amount of cattle in the country, and the effects of F&M firstly. The loss of milk, the mastitis, the weight loss...

Now imagine if this spread to EVERY herd. Imagine the financial implications to the farmers, the cost of vetinary treatment, the cost of extra feed, and the cost to the goverment.

It makes more sense to try and limit the amount of herds affected, than to just let it spead like wildfire. Okay, many many farmers were affected in the last outbreak, but nothing compared to the financial implications of every farmer in the country having to have vetinary treatment for every one of his stock.
 
The whole thing is scary. I can't imagine how that farmer must be feeling. i've just read on the BBC news site that they've culled another herd locally as well which hadn't got symptoms but "as a precaution"
frown.gif
 
I always feel a bit guilty when this sort of debate comes up.

My understand is that a eradiacting F&M via culling, and not letting it run it's course, is primarily to protect dairy herds.

When a dairy cow, or indeed any animal, gets foot and mouth, their fertility is often left compromised as is their ability to produce milk. Severe mastitis leads to the udder permanently being incapable of making milk. We have a few cows of our own that have had what is known as August Bag, or summer mastitis. It's caused by flies. As an udder has four quarters, we have the odd cow who only milks on three quarters owing to mastitis at some point in their past.

Endemic foot and mouth is a huge risk to the quality of our produce as well as the industry. No export licences etc would be granted for meat and dairy products. UK agriculture couldn't be sustained with a national stock that is known to harbour and suffer from the disease.

Incidentally, and no offence to you PF, but I wouldn't buy meat from Argentina. Some of the local cash and carries stock Argentine Beef. I would never buy from a country that has endemic F&M out of principal. There was a huge uproar in 2001 when Wrights Pies (not sure if you've heard of them) revealed they source the meat for their pies from Argentina.

Regarding vaccination. The country will consider vaccinating to create a ring of protection around infected areas. However a vaccine won't spare the lives of the stock that have been treated. We cannot risk vaccinated stock becoming carries for the disease without showing symptoms at some point in the future. Once the outbreak was contained, the vaccinated stock would also be culled as there would be no market for their milk/meat.
 
It's too late to edit now but I meant to mention that I'm also flabbergasted that our Government allows the import of meat and meat products from countries known to have foot and mouth endemic in their livestock. Even a tin of Ham, that some people keep in their cupboards, could well have been made from meat in far off lands.

It smacks of double standards. I'm surprised the boffins at the EU don't step in and stop us!
 
[ QUOTE ]
There is my train of thought that says that the government are trying to remove every aspect of livestock farming from the country, so they can build more free housing for illegal immigrants and teenage mothers, on the former farms!

[/ QUOTE ]

LMAO!! You ARE joking right?!
crazy.gif
 
QR

Wow, it never ceases to amaze how supposedly intelligent people can come out with such utter bulls**t
 
the trouble with vaccination as well, is that as with any vaccine, some animals would remain susceptible and in a vaccinated population an outbreak would be harder to detect quickly and thus contain quickly. there are pros and cons to the culling and I for one am not entirely convinced either way.
 
two words for culling

TOTALLY UNNECESSARY

(except that some recipient countries to our meat exports won't buy the stuff if it's vaccinated or has had f&m)

my response to that is so what - it'd have to be sold at home, save on air miles importing meat from abroad when we have better and more humanely produced meat at home
 
[ QUOTE ]
Not 100% sure but I think its something to do with food export? I think if our national herd is vaccinated for FMD then we lose our FMD free status?
There is my train of thought that says that the government are trying to remove every aspect of livestock farming from the country, so they can build more free housing for illegal immigrants and teenage mothers, on the former farms!

[/ QUOTE ]

how absolutley right you are i hate the way this country is going and don't plan to stay for much longer.
mad.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top