Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak

news.bbc.co.uk

Cattle at a farm in Surrey have been found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease.
Animals on a farm near Guildford have tested positive for the disease which swept the UK and wreaked havoc in 2001

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well once again in jolly old England we have another foot and mouth outbreak with cattle affected. Lets hope this doesnt spread as it did a few years ago when it literally stopped production of meat and above all resulted in the burning of thousands of cattle and basically alinated us from the rest of Europe> This time at least the goverment are acting fast with Gordon Brown returning to sit a meeting with Cobra

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Early indications suggest that the government and other authorities seem to be getting on top of things pretty quickly to try to prevent the spread and, should the worst happen, try to contain the damage.

The PM and Environment Secretary are coming back from their holidays to London to take part in a Cobra meeting tomorrow, it seems senior military figures are preparing plans to deploy troops should it be necessary and farming/agricultural organisations are being consulted and a blanket ban of livestock movement has been issued.

Kudos for everyone involved for learning the lessons from 2001 and trying to solve this quickly before it spreads.

I may be slightly paranoid here but it never seems a surprise that it's only UK meat thats affected. Look at CJD and now, possibly the second major break of foot and mouth. Something doesn't quite ring true in my mind.

Sabotage?

I'm not entirely sure- I know the UK exports alot of cattle abroad, yet I haven't heard a single case of foot and mouth contracted in France or the rest of Europe for that matter.

Something smells fishy to me and I hope this is a single and isolated outbreak.

Not good at all, I really hope this is contained very quickly,

they have set up Zones around the famr in hopes that this can be contained,


Im sure the recent flood weather has not helpd in the slightest, Lets hope that its not already to late,

Not again!

It nearly destroyed our Agricultural industry.

Okay, maybe the government is quicker off the mark this time, but prevention should be the main port of call.

How come the French and the Germans don't get Foot and Mouth?

I doubt its sabotage. I just don't think we are as thorough as the rest of the big European nations.

I'm not sure on figures though, maybe the British farmers were whipping the Frenchies?

Originally posted by Peyre
I doubt its sabotage. I just don't think we are as thorough as the rest of the big European nations.

I'm sorry but I don't believe that for one second. Especially considering the damage the last outbreak caused i'm sure even more stringent checks were put in place shortly after the first outbreak.

I wouldn't be too suprised if it is sabotage..

Gotta keep the public fearful with a new story every day of the week.. can't have too many people being happy and free now

UK authorities are doing "everything in our power" to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease after it was found at a farm near Guildford, Gordon Brown has said.

Speaking after a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee, Mr Brown said experts would work "night and day" to establish its source.

Notice it is always british farmers that are at the front of it all. 60 animals have been culled so far, lets hope this does not spread like back in 2001, alot of those farmer nearly or did loose their livelyhood.

Just a little thing about foot and mouth in case no one has heard of it.

Foot-and-mouth is a highly contagious viral disease which affects cattle
Symptoms include fever, lesions in the mouth and lameness
The disease only crosses the species barrier from cattle to human with very great difficulty
The disease in humans is mild, short-lived and requires no medical treatment

Also lets hope they have contained the outbreak this time, dont know how high a risk this is to contaminating other animals susch as pgs ect, if any in here is a vet or anything maybe they can let us all know, what the risks are.

Originally posted by Knights
I may be slightly paranoid here but it never seems a surprise that it's only UK meat thats affected. Look at CJD and now, possibly the second major break of foot and mouth. Something doesn't quite ring true in my mind.
Sabotage?

No England is a very small country with quite intensive farming where animals are concerned

I'm not entirely sure- I know the UK exports alot of cattle abroad, yet I haven't heard a single case of foot and mouth contracted in France or the rest of Europe for that matter.

Do you speak or read French, German, Dutch, Walloon, Flemish?
If so you would see that they have their outbreaks too. It just isnt reported in UK news or Newspapers.

Something smells fishy to me and I hope this is a single and isolated outbreak.

Why should it smell fishy. We get outbreaks in humans, we get outbreaks in animals, it happens

Originally posted by Chorlton
Do you speak or read French, German, Dutch, Walloon, Flemish?
If so you would see that they have their outbreaks too. It just isnt reported in UK news or Newspapers.

No I'm afraid I don't- but if you do feel free to enlighten me on this matter because all I could find was articles on European countries blaming and banning UK meat for their infections.

Why should it smell fishy. We get outbreaks in humans, we get outbreaks in animals, it happens

I think your point is extremely diverse. If a farm was to be sabotaged with a highly infectious disease, it would cause the EU to put a block on British livestock and the demise (yet again) of Britains farming businesses allowing another country to fill the void. If you wanted to promote your own goods you can take out the competition and fill the gap. Not so 'fishy' in my eyes.

Originally posted by Knights

Originally posted by Chorlton
Do you speak or read French, German, Dutch, Walloon, Flemish?
If so you would see that they have their outbreaks too. It just isnt reported in UK news or Newspapers.

No I'm afraid I don't- but if you do feel free to enlighten me on this matter because all I could find was articles on European countries blaming and banning UK meat for their infections.

Well they always do, and then we generally try to do the same to them
The French had quite serious attacks of mad Cow disease (la Vache Folle)
However what they did do was, instead of counting how many head of cattle had it, they just counted actual farms that had it ! Naughty people.
Several years back the Dutch had a very nasty outbreak of something to do with Pigs and had to destroy a lot of them.

Why should it smell fishy. We get outbreaks in humans, we get outbreaks in animals, it happens

I think your point is extremely diverse. If a farm was to be sabotaged with a highly infectious disease, it would cause the EU to put a block on British livestock and the demise (yet again) of Britains farming businesses allowing another country to fill the void. If you wanted to promote your own goods you can take out the competition and fill the gap. Not so 'fishy' in my eyes.

But your suggestions are all "If" if if if
If someone were to sabotage anything dont you think they would infect more than one farm?. Its sumertime, its hot, weve had a lot of rain, ideal conditions for bugs and germs to breed.

Pardon my ignorance on the subject but isn't it a bit over the top to kill all these animals? Why don't they just give them a vaccine? I've been led to believe that f&m is curable and the main symptoms are blisters round the mouth and that it might put the animals off their food for a couple of days. I'm no veggie (as an animal lover I'm actually ashamed to admit that) but I was very upset during the last outbreak to see video on the news showing piles of burning animals as well as a few covertly taken clips of sheep trying desperately to protect their lambs. Not to mention the much loved pets that were forcibly removed from folks houses in dawn raids. Someone mentioned CJD in a previous post. Could it be there's a conspiracy involved in these mass slaughters and we're not given the full truth on this. It seems a bit over the top and hysterical to kill millions of animals when a shot could protect them.

[edit on 4-8-2007 by wigit]

Originally posted by Chorlton
But your suggestions are all "If" if if if
If someone were to sabotage anything dont you think they would infect more than one farm?. Its sumertime, its hot, weve had a lot of rain, ideal conditions for bugs and germs to breed.

"If"? well, unfortunately I can't provide evidence to suggest it was a direct form of sabotage. Only an idea which I think is conceivable. Remember, you are on a conspiracy site and i'm sure there are many more types of 'if' argument, just browse the 9/11 section!

As for the one farm point of view, as you have already stated the weather conditions are ideal for such a virus to spread and perhaps a wide variety of infections all of the UK may raise aa few eyebrows.

Originally posted by wigit
Pardon my ignorance on the subject but isn't it a bit over the top to kill all these animals? Why don't they just give them a vaccine? I've been led to believe that f&m is curable and the main symptoms are blisters round the mouth and that it might put the animals off their food for a couple of days. I'm no veggie (as an animal lover I'm actually ashamed to admit that) but I was very upset during the last outbreak to see video on the news showing piles of burning animals as well as a few covertly taken clips of sheep trying desperately to protect their lambs. Not to mention the much loved pets that were forcibly removed from folks houses in dawn raids. Someone mentioned CJD in a previous post. Could it be there's a conspiracy involved in these mass slaughters and we're not given the full truth on this. It seems a bit over the top and hysterical to kill millions of animals when a shot could protect them.
[edit on 4-8-2007 by wigit]

One problem is recovery rate. It takes a long time for them to recover according to various sources. The other problem is that many cattle who dont show symptoms can actually carry the disease and therefore infect other animals later, so one would suspect its far cheaper and easier to kill off the animals and start again.



[edit on 4-8-2007 by wigit]

Foot & Mouth is no real surprise considering the vast excess of water dumped on the lands recently. Generally flooding always results in some form of disease getting a little advantage through the quagmires.

As for the previous Foot & Mouth outbreak well I always wondered, if you wanted to test, reasonably safely test, how far a biological agent can move around your country. Then foot and mouth was ideal, can easily be deliberately set off and eventually blamed on some farmer.

But you can determine how quick it moves from place to place then make reasonable estimates on how bad it would be if it affected humans.

Just a previous thought.


But another outbreak again - probably natural. However - again Que Bono

It shows the weakness in agricultural farming, the hazards it faces, the costs. Genetic modified produce, even such claims as growing and manufacturing meat as opposed to the animals that carry it.

This could be regulated, packaged, contained and sold faster and quicker.

So poor farmers who have lots of available land for development.

And hey for the future of food science who can say- well we know ways that wouldnt be infected by such things as foot and mouth.



So its just foot and mouth - diseases spread always in agriculture

Its just a reminder that agriculture and farming in a new world of technology is on its way out.

Its another discreet test of how far a biological agent can spread and how quick once released, perhaps in planning for a point the finger at Iran False Flag

The sole fact remains there is no way to confirm any possibility and its all speculation.

Originally posted by asala


they have set up Zones around the famr in hopes that this can be contained,

Yes they did, but did you know the airborne virus can travel 50 miles yet they have set the area to only 3km and 10km? Now if They know it can travel 50 miles which is roughly 80km why such a small area? Would it not be better to stay on the safer side and expand the area to the maxium to start?

edit to correct conversion error

[edit on 8/4/2007 by shots]

Did anybody read the news report that the farm is close to a laboratory that tests strains of foot and mouth?
I remember 2 years ago that they had imported bird flu infected birds from Asia to that very place.(both different strains are there)
The government will have to pay those farmers a lot of compensation if its true.
www.newscientist.com...

Fears that an apparent outbreak of bird flu on the Greek island of Oinousa was H5N1 have not been borne out by initial tests at the UK’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency, the EU reference lab for flu, in Surrey. “Initial tests are negative,” VLA spokesman Matt Conway told New Scientist, although he cautions this will take several days to confirm.

[edit on 4-8-2007 by tracey ace]

archives.tcm.ie...

The foot-and-mouth outbreak could have been started deliberately by someone who stole a test-tube of the virus from a laboratory in Britain.

The Sunday Express says a container of foot-and-mouth virus went missing from a secret Government lab at Porton Down in Wiltshire two months before the crisis began.

This was back in 2001 by the way.


I was going to ask this earlier, but are there any biowarfare facilities in the area of this outbreak?

Just been watching the BBC news;

There was a person from some agency being interviewed, and the news reporter made the point afterwards that the person being interviewed specifically made referrence to a "leak" from a facility being one probable cause. For them to even state this suggests that it is probably the case.

To answer my own question, yes, there is a facility close to where the outbreak has occured. It now becomes quite apparent that this probably is sabotage.. but why now is the question.. what need is there for this at the current time?..

[edit on 4-8-2007 by shrunkensimon]