New Foot and mouth outbreak?

It will be lovely at the Feria!

I hope they get this outbreak under control faster than the last. What with the recent rains, if this gets out of hand, the furure for livestock farming in the UK is going to be even less secure. We shall soon be importing a significant proportion of French milk if we are not very careful...

ATB from Fredrik

When I heard about this on the news I reflected on the BSE crisis and the "food-miles" debate that has been talked about in the UK.

If you cannot keep your national herd free of disease it kinds of mucks that whole ecological argument up, really.

I read something of a Lincoln University study that swiftly dispatched the food miles debate, illustrating clearly that lamb grown down here on grass in fields and transported to UK on ships was more carbon neutral throughout the entire food chain to point of sale, than the trip home from the supermarket post-sale.

british beef? I'm not a cow, I'm a chicken/goat/escargot.

It's now being reported that the strain of foot and mouth may have come from a nearby government/private research facility.

Oh dear! That does not sound good. Hopefully though it has not already been spread all over UK before the diagnosis at that rate.

Fredrik

It is good news that the outbreak appears localised, and that it is now possible to move livestock directly to the abattoir, and remove fallen stock.

No doubt in the exclusion zone round the outbreak it will much longer before the all clear is given.

ATB from Fredrik

Thought interested folks might like to take a peek at this website - kinda makes you despair really.

warmwell

(NB Click on the 'summary' heading)

Kudos to Debbie Reynolds, she sure is the best man for the job.