|
| ||
| Home | Search | |
History of Foot and Mouth epidemic in U.K. 2001
Part 6
(external links open in new window)
Continuing outbreaks - a tailend timebomb? - July/August 2001
The tail of the epidemic seems to go on endlessly, posing a constant threat to areas not yet infected - particularly the main dense pig farming area of East Yorkshire. The government firmly rejects both vaccination and the growing clamour for a public enquiry into the handling of the FMD crisis. Alarmed at the massive cost of FMD control, the government highlights farmers as "compensation junkies" and acts to reduce future support.
Late July 2001
Tesco to buy 2 million FMD-restricted lambs: Ananova
7,000 farms waiting to be disinfected
July 23: The UK government has halted, for two weeks, the disinfection of farms that have had foot and mouth. The government is reviewing the £2 million (GB pounds) per day cost to taxpayers of disinfecting farms infected with foot and mouth disease. The total cost of the operation has apparently built up to about £800M (currency conversion). The cost of disinfecting farms is said to be up to 10 times the cost of treating similar farms elsewhere in Europe. Further spending has been halted, until revised costs are agreed, but the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) says that the suspension of disinfection is only temporary. Number of farms affected is about 7,000 which cannot be restocked until disinfection is completed.
Published July 2001!
Out of the Ashes - FMD epidemic in UK
A children's story based on real life events- As the year 2001 begins, disaster engulfs the British countryside as foot and mouth disease plunges farming communities into nightmare. The infection draws closer and closer to the Morley's small acreage. Then the unmistakeable symptoms appear in one of their cows.
Available (to all countries) from Amazon UK
Large number of new sheep infections found in Brecon Beacons
July 25: Destruction of 4,000 sheep will begin immediately in the Brecon Beacons common grazing area of Wales. Blood samples taken last weekend have revealed FMD antibodies in sheep from five areas of the Beacons. Several thousand more sheep are to be tested.
UK Chief Vet interviewed on BBC radio on July 27th
The DEFRA (formerly MAFF) Chief Veterinary Officer, Mr. Jim Scudamore, reported that a range of FMD antibody levels (high, medium and zero) had been found in the Brecon Beacons sheep this week, indicating that FMD virus is currently active in the region on a number of farms. Mr. Scudamore was asked about the continuing FMD problem despite a press conference on May 3rd announcing "we are on the home straight" and despite a prediction by government epidemiologists that outbreaks would fall to zero by June 7th (revised date of the national elections). The Chief Vet replied that only 3 or 4 regional "hotspots" of FMD remained. His policies were strongly criticised on air by a retired senior veterinarian, Ken Tyrrell, who had worked for MAFF in the 1967 epidemic. Mr. Tyrrell suggested that yesterday's outbreak in Warrington, Lancashire was close to a huge rendering plant used for FMD carcases, and that the importance of not transporting infected carcases around the country was being neglected. DEFRA strategies were also criticised on grounds of welfare abuse, excessive bureaucracy, lack of commonsense and failure to apply lessons learned from the 1967/68 epidemic.
Farm Animal Diseases
**Latest Edition**
of the classic textbook
"Veterinary Medicine"for details click here:
Amazon UK (Europe) Amazon USA (world-wide)
DEFRA announce some costs of FMD outbreak
July 31: The Department of Environment has announced that expenditure to date on compensation of farmers for the destruction of animals plus the cost of cleaning and disinfecting farms amounts to 1.2 billion GB pounds (). Work in progress is expected to raise this to 2.3 billion GB pounds. These costings exclude direct costs of the huge administrative, laboratory and veterinary effort that has gone into control of the epidemic, some of which falls on local authorities. Indirect costs, such as disruption of abattoir, meat and livestock industries and the impact on tourism are also not included.
Early August 2001
outbreaks update
August 2: Another outbreak confirmed in North Yorkshire this morning, UK total now stands at 1922. 7 new outbreaks yesterday (five in Cumbria + two in North Yorkshire - at Ugthorpe, Whitby and Balk, Thirsk)
(How vaccination was rejected: in April)
DEFRA & NFU - an un-holi alliance?
An out-of-control FMD epidemic has been handled without strategic vacccination
This has cost millions of healthy animals lives, traumatised many thousands of people (some fatally), damaged the environment, disrupted farming and food supplies, sucked in imports, cost taxpayers over £2 billion and cost rural businesses and tourism many more billions. WHY?...
PRO: MASS CULLING of HEALTHY ANIMALS....
DEFRA & NFU: News NFU April view Vet.Record NFU & public purse Spin-doctoring?
PRO: STRATEGIC VACCINATION....
Prof.Midmore - economic arguments against the cullsummary full papers (PDF)
PDIC Abigail Woods Elm Farm Research Centre Prof. Wheelock Warmwell Farmtalking Cullmaff Eastpenrest Merinosheep Causal.org Sheepdrove Heartofdevon Farmersforaction Action-footandmouth FMD scientists
2 outbreaks in Cumbria on August 4th, none on August 5th
Scandal over poor biosecurity in Yorkshire
Spot checks by Trading Standards on farm vehicles in the Yorkshire biosecurity zone centred on the town of Thirsk have revealed that 1 in 10 vehicles has not been cleaned after leaving a farm. Out of 1,100 farms in the zone, 80 did not have proper facilities for disinfection e.g footbaths at the entrance. Prosecutions are being threatened Ananova News Agency report
6 outbreaks in Cumbria on August 15th
We have received a report that the staff of DEFRA are planning to strike on Monday August 20th because of a dispute over pay.
3 outbreaks on August 12 (2 Cumbria, 1 Wales)
£50,000 compensation for one sheep!
July 31: The Department of Environment has paid 50,000 GB pounds (convert) foot and mouth compensation (contiguous cull) for a pedigree breeding ram. The ram, named Mossdale Nuggett, was a Swaledale - an indigenous breed with a reputation for high quality wool and hardiness. The ram was owned by Eric Nelson of Bull and Cave Farm, near Lancaster and Robbie Cowperthwaite of Stockdale Farm, Settle. They had paid £50,000 for the ram in 1997
Weaner pigs accumulation in Yorkshire
Young weaned pigs are building up on farms at a rate of 12,000-15,000 per week.
They are mostly being housed outdoors in temporary accommodation.
Producers want to move the weaners to indoor housing as soon as possible, but DEFRA has not yet given permission for any pig movements in the Thirsk area "blue" biosecurity zone. It is also hoped that pig movements to Malton may soon be permitted.
Late August 2001
Are farmers "compensation junkies"? - A personal opinion
The UK Rural recovery co-ordinator, Lord Haskins, says farmers are too dependent on subsidies, and on state help in a crisis. The other side of this coin, which he omits to mention, is that farmers also have to bear a debilitating avalanche of state and EU interference (bureaucratic and regulatory) on a scale unknown to other industries. Also, in the UK, over the past two years, a government policy of high value for the GB pound has made home-produced food uncompetitive against imports.
How can livestock farmers be independent while carrying considerable state-imposed burdens and while being denied a "level playing field" against import competition?
Lord Haskins extols French farmers as a shining example of rural survival - but we all know that French farmers are pre-eminent in the EU for their swift (and usually militant) repulsion of state- or EU-imposed intolerable interference with their livelihood. - M.J.M.
What are your views? - Please post your comments now in our special Livestock farming discussion area
1 outbreak in Cumbria, 1 in Yorkshire on August 16th Three cows and their calves with clinical signs of foot and mouth disease have been slaughtered on a farm at the hamlet of Nine Banks near Hexham, Northumberland (county of origin of the epidemic, back in February). This small hamlet (a hamlet is smaller than a village) is situated in a valley where there have been no foot and mouth disease outbreaks previously. This is the first evidence of the FMD virus in that county for just over three months. Other animals on the farm have been slaughtered - 60 cattle and 200 sheep in total. Their carcases have been transported in three lorries to a rendering plant in Cheshire.
3,000 DEFRA employees take industrial action
August 20: there is a pay dispute by former MAFF staff who are paid less than their colleagues from the former DETR department. Front line staff working with foot and mouth disease control are minimally affected: Ananova News Agency
no outbreaks on August 19th
1 outbreak in Cumbria, 1 in N.Yorkshire on August 18th
Worrying new outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Northumberland - August 24th
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) plan to destroy all susceptible animals on five neighbouring farms in the next 36 hours. 3 km protection zone and 10 km surveillance zone have been created around the infected farm. There are more than 60 susceptible premises within three kilometres of the infected farm and the weather conditions are currently wet in the area - favouring virus survival and spread. There have been grouse-shooting parties in the area recently, but no more will be permitted. DEFRA have discounted the grouse-shoots as a factor in this new outbreak.1 outbreak (Cumbria) on August 23rd
1 outbreak (Cumbria) on August 22nd
Note: raw meat can legally be brought in from the EU, and cooked meat (less than 1 kg) from outside EU
4 outbreaks (Cumbria) on August 21st
3 outbreaks (Cumbria) on August 20th
2 outbreaks (Cumbria & Northumberland) on August 24th
8 outbreaks August 27th (5 Northumberland, 3 Cumbria)
Livestock on 4 farms Scottish Borders under observation.
6 outbreaks on August 26th - 3 Northumberland 3 Cumbria
5 outbreaks on August 31st - 2 Cumbria, 3 Northumberland
no new outbreaks on August 29-30th
Dutch farmers demand UK vaccinates
August 28: Dutch farmers' group, LTO-Nederland, want the United Kingdom to commence ring vaccination in order to control the continuing foot and mouth disease epidemic
Their spokesman, Jack Luiten, is reported as saying "We are very concerned about what is going on over there. If they continue the way they have, there's a chance that the disease will not be under control by next summer. Please go over to another policy and start ring vaccination like we did in the Netherlands. We are very afraid that a second outbreak in the Netherlands would be a complete disaster."
History of UK FMD 2001-2002:
from Outbreak to Epidemic to Endemic to Depopulation to Disaster
to Timebomb (this page) to Rural rasure to Recovery to Healing & Transformation
