Entries that include the 2nd wave of FMD outbreaks in 2007
(start)Dec 11 2007 ~ "I looked up some of the paperwork that I received in the past few months...."
- Lord Willoughby de Broke, "farmer and assiduous DEFRA form-filler":
- "The latest single payment scheme book
runs to 100 pages; the cross-compliance handbook to 47 pages; the cross-compliance soil
management handbook to 40 pages; and, in a little light reading, the set-aside update for
2007 is 9 pages. And, one I seem to have missed, the SPS handbook, is 90 pages. That is
not allowing for the waste management paperwork, the ELS—the entry level scheme
paperwork—or the countryside stewardship. I do not blame Defra for this paperwork; it is
simply doing Brussels’ bidding. It is the implementation agency for our master in
Brussels, the Commission, which is responsible for the shambles of the common
agricultural policy. It is a shambles, is it not?..."
December 10/11 2007 ~ "The plan draws on lessons learned from disease outbreaks earlier this year .."
- Without waiting for any response from the Anderson Review, Defra laid its yearly Contingency Plan (147 pages) before Parliament again today. In 2005 the SAC Epidemic Diseases sub-group, in their review of that year's Foot and Mouth Disease contingency plan, made 20 recommendations. DEFRA responded to them. Warmwell commented upon them. That was 2 years ago and we'd welcome comments about whether readers think things have changed for the better since that work was done. The Summer of 2007 , as we commented in October, showed that many of the failings of six years ago were simply repeated. Poor funding led to an accident - but lack of vaccination turned it into a disaster. Because on-site rRT-PCR has been shunned in the UK, animals were subjected to repeated blood tests instead of rapid non-invasive swabs and quick results on site. Over two thousand were killed - most of which were healthy.
Merely tinkering with animal health policies - changing the odd thing here and there in the Contingency Plan - is not going to get farming out of its deep crisis. We read that the Farmers Crisis Network helplines are jammed not because of disease itself but because of the policies applied to them that seem only to make matters worse - TB, foot and mouth disease, avian flu - slaughter and inflexible standstills seem the only things DEFRA knows. Other support agencies are reporting similar increases. (At least Bluetongue can be treated only by vaccination and we look forward to the outcome of the EU meeting on January 16th)
December 10/11 2007 ~"It may be of interest that an area in Normandy Surrey near Pirbright has been taped off."
- An emailer writes, "
This is the site of the original outbreaks. Maybe something to do with the heavy rain we have been having?
Oh by the way, very shortly after the last 'leakage' from Pirbright (see below) they started bleeding sheep in the neighbourhood. It is a wonder that some of them have any blood left.
All a bit strange because we were told that the virus hadn't leaked into the environment. I have a feeling that we are not being told everything or perhaps it's because the authorities are not really sure what is going on?"
December 10 2007 ~"Industry experts are said to believe that the public has become immune to food scare stories"
- So says the Telegraph in an article today reporting increased demand for turkeys. The executive officer of the British Poultry Council, said: "In the main, everyone understands there is going to be no problem sourcing the 10 million turkeys eaten by the public this Christmas."
It rather depends how you define "problem".
Scares tend to pick on the wrong target. (See article here about the new book "Scared to Death- From BSE To Global Warming - Why Scares Are Costing Us The Earth" - Amazon link)
Those of us who buy meat should indeed be concerned, not first by the possibility of catching disease but at the way our species exploits some animals - and poultry in particular - in a way that encourages disease to thrive in the first place. In his book, Colin Tudge writes, "If modern livestock production had been designed by a crack team of pathogens, they could scarecely have done the job better....even people who can see the horrors and absurdity of the present-day food supply chain are apt to make excuses for it. Doesn't it provide us with cheap food - at least in the West? Wouldn't food be more expensive if run along more enlightened lines? In an age in which routine mendacity is merely a tactic, this is still the most pernicious of all lies."
December 8 2007 ~ "....confusing results and statements by the Commission as to whether there was or was not an epidemic of FMD in Cyprus."
- The Cyprus Mail (quoted by ProMed) reports on a letter sent to the EU's President Jose Manuel Barroso by MEP Marios Matsakis. He asked
Barosso to clearly state whether or not there is, or is not, an
epidemic in Cyprus, could there be an epidemic with a "non-active"
virus and if so was what was the purpose of taking restrictions if
the virus was non infective to other animals.
-
"...The farmers of Cyprus and the Cypriot public in general are fed up
with the way the apparent 'outbreak' has been handled at Commission
level and at the Cyprus Ministry of Agriculture level. ..."
December 8 2007 ~ "epidemiological data from 2007 did not detect infection in local wild birds before infection in domestic flocks..."
- said the Eurosurveillance weekly release, 2007 12(12) quoted on ProMed. Nevertheless we also read, " This is open to various
interpretations, one being that EU wild bird surveillance, although
extensive, has not been sufficient to trace infection in wild birds. .." and, perhaps ominously, "...ECDC's risk assessment is that those most at
risk are people with small domestic and hobby flocks, rather than
those working on large 'industrial' farms [11], although it is
important that the prevention messages reach both. "
(One looks in vain for the logic here. Any informed comment welcome.)
December 8 2007 ~ £270m dairy price-fixing scandal. Supermarkets accused of “corporate greed”.
-
The Daily Post says, "Retailers such as Asda and Sainsbury’s and a number of major dairies yesterday agreed to pay combined fines of more than £116m after admitting fixing the price of milk, cheese and butter following a probe by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The Farmers Union of Wales believes something similar is now happening in the UK lamb market...."
As Colin Tudge writes in his book "Feeding People is Easy"
- "We should question the sanctimonious argument that food must be cheap for the sake of the poor....The antidote to poverty is to give a damn and create economies with fairer shares. The answer is not to be cruel to animals, or to screw farmers into the ground, or to fell forests and pollute rivers. These are the methods of the scoundrel..."
December 7 2007 ~ "If all the UK farms that were slaughtered out in 2001 had been tested in a pooled sample from 10 animals it would have been £100,000 for test kits at most..."
- Roger Breeze writes, " ...It is not necessary to differentiate between FMD serotypes on the farm since this is not a time-sensitive decision. The response in USA, EU and UK to all FMD serotypes is the same until a vaccine is deployed based on the serotype and subtype. The exact virus type can be determined by sequencing the entire virus genome within 24 hours of first identification by on-farm PCR.
By the way, USDA (and probably Pirbright) make their FMD PCR tests in house in facilities that are not FDA or USDA licensed for diagnostics production and they do not follow good manufacturing practices. USDA encourages the state labs to do the same thing and not purchase quality test kits ..." Read in full
December 7 2007 ~ Dairy-bred bull calves born on Waitrose milk suppliers’ farms are to be finished for beef and veal in the UK
- As we note below, the vast majority of bull calves are either summarily shot as unwanted or, when live export is allowed, are shipped abroad to become white veal. Both the journey and the treatment in crates and abattoirs fail to take account of their status as sentient beings. Now the Farmers Guardian reports that Waitrose wants all aimals raised in its farms to be "reared within the existing fully integrated supply chain." If trials prove successful, Waitrose aims to roll out the scheme across all the 65 dairy farms that supply it.
December 7 2007 ~ Compassion in World Farming wins Derek Cooper special award 2007
-
The news from Waitrose will please CIWF, winners last week, warmwell is very pleased to see, of this year's Derek Cooper
Special Award for Best Food Campaigner/Educator 2007
As one of our most eminent emailers remarked yesterday,
- "the powerful men in grey suits (aka
David King et al) are all supporters of cheap, welfare unfriendly/GM food
for the burgeoning world population. They seem to have no ability to look
into the future and see the unsustainable nature of their views - or the
necessity to address human population growth. It looks as if the battle
lines will be extensive/welfare friendly (smaller numbers/less
money/sentient animals) versus intensive/factory (powerful people/lots of
money/livestock as units) and I'm not at all sure that the intensive lobby
will ever see reason as they are seduced by power and short term gains."
December 6 2007 ~ Mass produced "free-range" poultry for Christmas
- A timely article from the Daily Mail shows that even animals touted as free-range, such as the "free range" Norfolk Blacks inspected for the article, can live in conditions that would appall people who, aware of the cruelty involved in mass production, buy them for Christmas. But free-range does not always mean ranging freely - as we saw in the H5N1 outbreak at Redgrave Park Farm in Suffolk where 5000 turkeys on the same premises might be considered rather more than "low stocking rates". The Mail article is rightly relentless in its exposé
. Very few turkeys are truly free range, raised on organic, additive-free cereals, and spending their days "roaming around cherry orchards and maize fields" and "humanely slaughtered on the farm, rather than being transported to a slaughterhouse - which research shows is a hugely stressful experience".
Attitudes to poultry production are - very slowly - changing, to the dismay of the intensive producers. Readers might consider signing up to the "Chicken Out" campaign by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall of River Cottage. Every time someone signs up there is a celebration on the page.
December 6 2007 ~ "government departments too often cut long-term research investment"
- The Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, architect of so much that has gone wrong with animal health policy in the UK, has been speaking to the Select Committee now called the "Innovation, Universities and Skills" Committee. The Times reports that he told them that though the IAH has outstanding scientific staff, they need better facilities to do their jobs. Absolutely right - but who was in the perfect position to ensure that pressure was brought to bear on the Treasury to give them and their facilities proper support?
What the Times does not report this morning is what Sir David said he considered the highest point of his time as CSA. He chose the 2001 foot and mouth crisis. He said it was demonstrating that "science could offer a solution". It had showed how complex phenomena could be computer-modelled, he said - in other words that science was at the heart of the policy in 2001 foot and mouth crisis. If Sir David, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, still believes this - one must really wonder what planet he inhabits. Certainly one where suffering, anguish and continuing trauma happen only on paper. (See Seven Pillars of Piffle, the latest Blog.)
December 5/6 2007 ~ " the time has come for the culling to begin nearer home. At least it would save us £300 million."
- Private Eye's Muckspreader this week is calling the DEFRA heirarchy "goons"
"....Defra have now decided to squeeze a further £40 million out of the farmers themselves to pay either for blunders created by Defra itself or for accidents made infinitely more costly by the goons’ absurd over-response to them" he writes, ".....The latest foot-and-mouth outbreaks were entirely the responsibility of Defra itself... Bluetongue, brought in by midges from the Continent, is hardly something the farmers could have avoided. But the crazy over-reaction to it by Defra and the EU, in imposing all sorts of crippling restrictions on animal movements, is costing farmers hundreds of millions of pounds more, and there was absolutely nothing the farmers could have done to persuade Defra or Brussels otherwise. Ditto bird ‘flu...."
December 5 2007 ~ "at some point over the next two weeks the UK will be able to rejoin the international market, including live exports"
- Scotsman. "... especially welcomed by dairy farmers who have for many months been prevented from exporting their surplus bull calves. ..the shipping of sheep, mostly older animals, to ethnic communities and specialist abattoirs .... That aspect of trade might not sit easy with some UK welfare organisations, but it was formerly worth many millions of pounds to UK farmers."
The implication that compromising animal welfare is acceptable if it results in large profits may also "not sit easy" with farmers with ethical standards. CIWF research shows that journeys that can take up to 20 hours and young calves travel particularly badly - and the organisation suggests alternatives to the trade with high-welfare alternatives, such as extensively-reared beef and rosé veal for sale in the UK (e.g. that reared by Helen Browning at Eastbrook Farm. It appears that Rosé veal is also popular at Buckingham Palace and, as the Independent's Mark Hix says, "the good thing is that all English veal is totally natural: the veal calves don't spend time in crates..I think it's about time we encouraged our farmers to produce more British veal.")
December 5 2007 ~ Lack of information about FMD vaccines - in the US
- A recent paper predicts a "devastating economic impact" should foot-and-mouth disease come to Kansas - but no mention at all is made of the effective vaccines that are available. Instead, "researchers predicted that 1.7 million head of livestock would have to be destroyed and that an outbreak would last nearly three months." Our attention was drawn to one article about the Kansas paper that even told its readers,
- "And there’s no vaccine, no way to stop such an attack."
December 5 2007 ~ US farmers have until December 14 voluntarily to register for NAIS
- The Wikipedia entry for NAIS links to several newspaper articles, five sites in support and thirty five sites that are against it. It says "The National Animal Identification System, otherwise known as NAIS, is a government-run program in the United States intended to permit improved animal health surveillance by identifying and tracking specific animals." but adds, " The NAIS is the result of extensive lobbying from large factory farms "agribusiness" to protect themselves against possible liability when an epidemic occurs." The USDA site explains what they want from the NAIS. The US Government Accountability Office (pdf) identifies several key problems that "hinder USDA’s ability to implement NAIS effectively.....Without a reliable cost-benefit analysis, stakeholders are unlikely to participate in NAIS due to their uncertainty about whether program benefits outweigh the costs."
December 4 2007 ~ " I am astounded and baffled as to why the government is allowed to continue to practise obsolete veterinary medicine that is clearly contrary to the welfare of animals"
- One does rather wonder how many of the people whose stock response to any mention of the rapid diagnostic tests that perform RT-PCR in the field is "Ah, but they are not validated" actually realise that they do not have to be validated in order to be used. A country can use any means it wishes to control foot and mouth disease whether or not OIE approves. Can anyone challenge this ? And it not, why on earth is the resistance to using such technology still allowed to carry such weight?
What do have to be "validated" are the tests used to resume international trade in animals and animal products. As Roger Breeze wrote in September, " As a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons of almost 40 years, I am astounded and baffled as to why the government is allowed to continue to practise obsolete veterinary medicine that is clearly contrary to the welfare of animals that the government has decided shall be solely in its care. There can be no other branch of veterinary medicine where modern science is totally ignored yet veterinary surgeons retain their licences to practise. ..."
December 4 2007 ~ " The new Rapid Test evaluated in this study achieves relatively high diagnostic sensitivity and provides results within about 30 minutes.."
- Warmwell readers may well share a certain frustration at seeing the rapid diagnostic test for chlamydia so praised as a breakthrough (See yesterday's
www.staffnurse.com) when similar technology to detect animal pathogens on-site and within the hour are consistently ignored with the mantra "not validated". DEFRA seems entirely uninterested by the fact that these "non validated" machines, far more lightweight and easy to operate than the machines assessed by the Pirbright team (pdf), are being successfully used in former Soviet countries such as Uzbechistan and Azerbyjan. The Chlamydia Rapid Test developed in Cambridge is so welcome because results are available within 30 minutes, which would allow all patients testing positive to be offered treatment while still at the clinic. But this is precisely what the rapid RT-PCR diagnostic machine (the size of a toaster) in the former Soviet Bloc countries mentioned above is already doing with both human patients, (tested, for example, for papillovirus in a mobile clinic), and the screening of animals in the field for pathogens. How extraordinary that the EU, which considers itself so sophisticated, should be so far lagging behind in life-saving technology, leaving people at risk from zoonoses and farmers a prey to the viruses and bacteria - the policies against which, as well as the pathogens themselves - threaten their livestock and their livelihoods.
December 4 2007 ~ EU lifts foot-and-mouth disease restrictions on Cyprus pork - leaving questions about the Cyprus "outbreak" unanswered
-
Cyprus is now allowed to resume exports of unprocessed pork - and the statement in the Cyprus Financial Mirror that this is because pigs are " considered to be less susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease" is a very odd statement. The ProMed Moderator says that the lifting of the export ban from
nearly the whole island, "means -- de facto -- that the EU recognizes
Cyprus as a territory free of circulating FMD virus." In other words, as we have noted below,
the positive serological
reactions in sheep were not necessarily indicative of disease. The moderator continues:
- " in view of
the unconvincing clinical description, absence of circulating virus,
and negative serological reactions in susceptible cattle and pigs in
the vicinity of the "affected" flocks, combined with the absence of
any disease signs in these susceptible species.... past vaccinations could have been the cause of positive
sheep serology.
To sum-up and clear this unusual event, a follow-up or final report
to the OIE deserves to be submitted." (Read full posting)
December 4 2007 ~ Marks and Spencers wins 'Compassionate Supermarket 2007' award
-
M&S narrowly beat Waitrose in Compassion in World Farming's award. The Farmers Guardian says CIWF considers that although " many supermarkets were improving their welfare practices, many animals producing food for the supermarket shelf still ‘face unnecessary suffering’...and used the ceremony to urge consumers who want to shop compassionately to look at its guide www.ciwf.org.uk/supermarkets recommending high welfare products on sale in supermarkets.
December 3 2007 ~ The energy of children at play provides the community's water pump
- Every hour that a specially designed merry-go-round turns, it draws up 1400 litres from the borehole below and channels it into a large storage tank in a village in Kenya - thanks to Practical Action, formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group, founded in 1966 by Dr E F Schumacher, ( ‘Small is Beautiful'), fighting poverty from the bottom up rather than imposing from above. A one-off donation, however small, can be made here to help support more ingenious, low-cost solutions like the merry-go-round. Sending communities gifts of animals, clean latrines, taps, agricultural supplies and so on ( I chose alpaca food) on behalf of a loved one at Christmas seems also a refreshing antidote to excessive consumerism at this time of year.
December 3 2007 ~ Funding for Biotech research amounts to around £50 million per year; Support for organic farming: £1.6 million last year.
- (Gloucestershire Green Party obtained these figures under Freedom of Information.)
In a valedictory speech at the Royal Society last week, Sir David King urged: "To date, the government has taken a broadly neutral approach to GM issues.... I believe that it's now time to revisit this issue." (See Guardian) and the Guardian reported in September that ministers believed public concerns over GM had "softened".
The Farmers Weekly is running a poll to see whether farmers' attitudes have indeed "softened". (It would appear not)
Interesting that today, Dino Adriano, the former chief executive at J Sainsbury plc wrote (Guardian) , "The suggestion by some, who should know better, that the absence of legal challenge in the US over a 10-year period is evidence of GM's safety to humans is puerile. How can members of the public be expected to challenge the biotech companies in the absence of sound epidemiological evidence on the effect of GM in humans. Such research does not exist because neither the US government nor the biotech companies have wanted it."
December 3 2007 ~"Currently available (GMO's) mostly contribute negatively to poverty alleviation and food security and positively to the stock market."
- It is unfortunate that a lot of the GM debate tends to proceed on all-or-nothing lines. As warmwell's recent Blog commented,
- "...as an advocate of vaccine production involving some degree of genetic engineering I can hardly want to throw the baby out with the bath water. But this is not an all or nothing issue. Nothing need stop me from being glad that human insulin can be grown in GM yeast. The baby can be kept happily in the tub and still the question of the possible biotech monopoly of the food chain be raised with deep misgivings."
December 3 2007 ~ "When you industrialize food and farming too much, there will be outbreaks of disease. People will want local, organic food as a secure supply."
- Any interview with Vandana Shiva is always well worth reading in full. In this one, she explains:
- "...
My fight against patenting and genetic engineering is a fight against the enclosure of the biological and intellectual commons that is the basis of survival of the large majority of the people of the world. It’s also the basis of cultural diversity and cultural richness. Water is being enclosed through privatization. Water is a commons. The atmosphere is a commons that has been privatized by pollution from fossil fuels and the oil companies. They are taking what doesn’t belong to them, using it as their private sink. They are destabilizing the climate for all of us."
December 3 2007 ~ "a genetic problem from a narrowed base, husbandry systems and susceptibility related to more intensive farming"
- New Zealand hosted an OIE Regional Commission for Asia, the Far East and Oceania last week. Discussions were held on Bird Flu and included debate on controlling foot and mouth, emerging diseases in pigs, food safety challenges for developing countries and an update on the disease status of all countries. The part in animal disease played by a narrowing genetic base, changed husbandry systems and intensive farm practices was discussed.
Foot and mouth is endemic in South East Asia, with about 400 outbreaks each year. China took part in the conference for the first time last week and has agreed to host the next one in 2009.
-
"The highlight for me was the commitment from the countries accepting we need to work together to be able to control these serious diseases,"
December 3 2007 ~ Deepening concern about water shortages is reaching the world's press.
- Professor Asit K. Biswas, an expert in water use and the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, wrote in a report released by the Asian Development Bank (Bankok Post):
- "If the present unsatisfactory trends continue, in one or two decades Asian developing countries are likely to face a crisis on water quality management that is unprecedented in human history."
December 3 2007 ~ Peak Oil is now talked about everywhere - but a lack of water is of even greater significance
- At least 700 million people among Asia-Pacific's 3.7 billion population don't have access to safe and affordable water and more than 1.9 billion don't have adequate sanitation, according to statistics compiled by the UN and other agencies. (See Bloomberg)
Last year, the BBC reported that in London leaks from ageing water mains are wasting 300 Olympic swimming pools' worth of water every single day; elsewhere in the world mismanagement of water means an increasingly desperate situation. Intensive industrialisation - particularly of farming, with its exploitation of animals and natural resources and its effect of exiling vast numbers of people into cities - demands a price to be paid that must outweigh any advantage in the long run. Human ingenuity in making profits is of little value if the wellbeing of the planet is put in jeopardy.
December 1 2007 ~ "In hyper-'efficient' Britain, policy makers continue to urge that we should abandon farming altogether.."
- Highly and urgently recommended is a book by Colin Tudge; "Feeding People is Easy" He says we need a renaissance world-wide in which - contrary to the pressures exerted by the powerful - small, mixed, labour-intensive farms are the norm, the default position.
- "As John Maynard Keynes pointed out 70 years ago, there is no relationship between the Gross National Product and human wellbeing...In hyper-'efficient' Britain, policy makers continue to urge (I have heard them doing so) that we should abandon farming altogether and buy from abroad, which these days largely means Brazil and Africa. Yet the money we spend in those countries does the population little or no good - merely speeding their exodus from traditional farms...we cannot allow the people who have the most influence in the world ...and all their attendant battalions of bureaucrats, economists and scientists - to perpetuate a system that is clearly based on nonsense and is threatening our entire survival.."
November 30 2007 ~ Huge take-up for "early severance" from DEFRA
- In answer to a question from Peter Ainsworth, Mr Shaw said, " In the last six months 161 employees of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been offered early retirement. To date, 135 of these have accepted the offer. A further 230 employees, aged under 50, have been offered early severance in the same period and of those, to date, 167 have accepted the offer. The scheme has been open to core DEFRA staff only and does not include agencies." Details of the deal are below. Meanwhile other DEFRA animal health employees belonging to the union Prospect have rejected a 2.9% offer and have been balloted on strike action.
In Tuesday afternoon's Opposition Day there will be a debate in the House of Commons on the Politicalisation of the Civil Service and the Performance of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
November 30 2007 ~ "H5N1 infection has not been detected in wild birds nor have any incidents of high mortality been observed in the area"
- says the preliminary epidemiological report of the Norfolk outbreak. It says the Norfolk strain had a 99.8% identity to the isolates
from "wild birds" in June and July 2007 in the Czech Republic. In an email today, Alan Beat quotes the FAO report which says that the Czech outbreak "started on a commercial turkey farm on 21st June holding 1800 birds. On 10th July, a single infected dead wild mute swan was found some distance away. Although the DEFRA epidemiological report mentions the single mute swan it does not mention the conclusion of the FAO investigation that the source was more likely to have been the turkey farms not to the farms via birds but the other way round:
- "the disease has spilled over from the turkey farms in the Czech Republic resulting in wild bird infections."
November 29 2007 ~ DEFRA staff are being balloted on possible strike action
- Hot on the heels of the news of ultra generous retirement schemes for senior DEFRA personnel (see Blog) comes the threat of strike action. 738 vets, animal health specialists and scientists - all members of the professional union Prospect - have rejected a pay offer of 2.9%. See FWi which quotes Kim Heywood of the NBA, "We are working out protocols for farmers who are currently in the bluetongue zones and there is potentially a window between January and March to allow movement from these zones. Obviously if DEFRA staff were to strike this would make this difficult to achieve..."
November 29 2007 ~"The root of DEFRA's problems"
- - as an NFU spokesman comments in the FWi -"is the inadequate recognition from the Treasury of the important role it plays..."
Hardly surprising that the morale of both farmers and DEFRA's own staff are at an all-time low. The consequences of this desperate state of affairs are dangerous for farming, food safety, animal welfare - and human health.
November 29 2007 ~ "overly complex, highly fragmented and confusing for participants. ..."
- Last year's independent review by David Eves CB is a formidable document. It examined how the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy is delivered in England. It made no fewer than 55 recommendations. David Eves, in spite of all diplomacy and tact, nevertheless said:
- ".... the present delivery system for animal health and welfare... is overly complex, highly
fragmented and confusing for participants. It is not conducive to better
regulation, and the many current uncertainties are militating against
close and effective collaboration between delivery partners.
... there are risks to its performance and reputation
as the UK Competent Authority. The position is not made easier by the
interactions and overlaps with food safety and public health...."
November 29th 2007 ~ " I try to sell everything locally thus obviating the need for traceability"
- One sheep farmer writes as if he were living in a sane world - one where traceability would only matter if animals were being moved out of the local area, farmers were paid proper prices for the food they produced, trustworthy records could be kept on paper, sheep were not made to suffer the effects of double tagging and choke-inducing boluses - and tax payers, via local Councils, were not required to fund an army of officials. See email.
Warmwell readers might like to spread the word about the website www.bigbarn.co.uk devoted to helping people to find good, safe, accountable food from local sources and to rebuild local food supply chains across the UK.
November 28 2007 ~ "The making of Sir David was his handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001"
- In his curious eulogy of Sir David King, Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News writes:
- "...The epidemic was spiralling out of control; but with the help of Lord Krebs he pushed for a policy of contiguous culling.
It was politically unpopular. The vets didn't understand it and didn't want it; and ministers were loathed to see pictures of smoke from burning carcasses blotting out the Sun.
But it was the right thing to do. And, despite tremendous pressure, he fought for the policy to continue.
It was this call that won Sir David the confidence of not only the prime minister, but - more importantly - the public."
November 28 2007 ~ First, the FMD crisis was not "spiralling out of control" on March 29 2001
- the date when David King and John Krebs and co, a bizarre alliance of the powerful ignorant, "pushed for a policy of contiguous culling". The policy of killing en masse around suspected infected premises (many of which were not infected at all) was based on the "false statistics, bad science and wrong deductions" of Roy Anderson's team - as Magnus Linklater explained in the Times last year. As Dr Alex Donaldson's submission to the Lessons Learned Inquiry - very much worth reading in full - said, "The epidemic had been in decline by the time of the introduction of the contiguous cull policy on 29 March. (In a publication by Keeling and co-authors, it was stated that the epidemic peaked on 26 March with 54 outbreaks per day.).."
"Politically unpopular" it may have been - although we saw little real attempt politically to change it.
November 28 2007 ~ vets and scientists who understood all too well what a tragic mistake was being made were ignored, as was Pirbright itself whose FMD experts were not even consulted
- in the drawing up of contingency plans. It will be remembered that the UK was fined £600 million by the European Commission over its disastrous handling of the crisis. The desperate grief of hundreds of people was never given media coverage for exactly the same reason as the pictures of "smoke from burning carcasses" were soon stopped; the political damage was considered far more important than the misery in the countryside.
Pallab Ghosh says of the carnage that "it was the right thing to do" and that the confidence of the public was won. On the contrary, it was the most callous and ignorant mistake and we have never heard any member of the "public" say otherwise. It will take more than a few articles attempting to airbrush the reputation of the departing Chief Scientific Advisor to eradicate the damning effects of his refusal to admit that terrible mistakes were made, of his continuing destructive influence on animal health policies or of his powerfully influential contempt for humane practices in animal husbandry.
November 28 2007 ~Exit King, enter Beddington
- In January Professor John Beddington, a professor of applied population biology at Imperial College, and present Chair of the SAC committee, takes over from David King. Alick Simmons is apparently to step into the position of Chief Veterinary Officer. Hopes for a better state of affairs are hard to come by.
November 27 2007 ~ "Gordon Brown likes to cite his handling of the bluetongue and foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks as evidence of his competence."
- So says the Financial Times. There are those who would cite the handling of the foot and mouth and bluetongue crises as evidence of the UK's medieval approach to animal disease control. The inability of the UK and DEFRA to learn either from the mistakes of the past nor from the most up-to-date- disease control technologies is costing the country dear. How could it have been possible not to use vaccination in August
- that vaccines produced at the Merial Pirbright laboratory are for export purposes
only? How is it possible that Bluetongue vaccine still has not actually been ordered - meaning the vaccine companies are stillsitting on their hands? How is it that anxious poutry owners who want to protect their birds from the next outbreak of H5N1 are still being told that they may not do so?
26 Nov 2007 ~ "This strange event has been characterised by EU-dictated cullings and other control measures; convincing evidence for a circulating virus is still lacking."
- It looks even more than ever likely that Cyprus had no active FMD virus at all. This is of little comfort when we contemplate the miserable scenes that have taken place. Of the reported news that "There have been 2 new cases of foot and mouth disease [FMD] located
in Cyprus", the ProMed moderator comments:
Are these findings indicative of "outbreaks?" According to reliable
sources, they are just indicative of sporadic positive serology....
Since the start of the event, all findings have been serological,
affecting a small number of sheep.....
Not a single suspected case has been recorded ....within 3
km of the index farm. Similarly, no suspected cases have been
detected within the 10 km zone....
This strange event has been characterised by EU-dictated cullings and other control measures; convincing evidence for a circulating virus is still lacking." Read the Moderator's commentary in full
25 Nov 2007 ~ Staff offered £40,000-a-year for life 'bribes' to quit shamed ministry Defra
- is the headline in this Evening Standard article. One insider is quoted: "They can't believe their luck. There are retirement parties all the time stretching into next spring. It seems an odd way to save money but no one is complaining. Some intend to take the money and then work in the private sector."....
- ".....the £300 million "voluntary retirement" scheme was devised as part of emergency measures to save money after Defra was fined £300 million by the EU for failing to pay farm subsidies on time.
The department's budget has come under further strain as a result of foot-and-mouth disease, bird flu, the floods and a failure to meet earlier job-reduction targets.
But some officials say the job-cutting scheme is so generous that Environment Secretary Hilary Benn is "throwing good money after bad....
".
25 Nov 2007 ~"the terminal decline of the UK farming industry through the pursuit of cheap food..."
- Lords Hansard for November 14th. The Lord Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, asked whether Lord Rooker was aware that the “World at One” on Radio 4 had carried a report in which it was suggested that British farmers should be assisted in growing more food for the UK market and that a spokesperson for Defra responded by saying:
- “It is up to the market to decide food prices. The UK can source efficiently food from a wide variety of stable countries, and that enables Britain to obtain the best value for money”?
Those warmwell readers who want to support their local farmers might like to publicise www.bigbarn.co.uk - a website devoted to helping people to find good, safe, accountable food from local sources and to rebuild local food supply chains across the UK.
24 Nov 2007 ~ The NFU’s Why Beef and Sheep Farming Matters campaign
- This campaign was launched in London last week and hopes to get consumers themselves to put pressure on supermarkets so that beef and lamb prices will allow farmers to make the profit needed to keep them in business - and lambs and cows in British fields. It is supported by a range of other organisations, including the National Council for Women, the Townswomen’s Guild and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.
Politics.co.uk says, "As a result of soaring feed costs and foot and mouth and bluetongue restrictions, the supermarkets have been cashing in, with the gap between the producer price of beef and the average retail price higher in every month since March 2007 than in the equivalent month a year previously, according to the Meat and Livestock Commission."
23 Nov 2007 ~ Such a virus escape, although bizarre, was not dangerous to the outlying countryside
- when, as the Times says,
- "urgent maintenance work on faulty effluent pipes and manhole covers at Pirbright had been completed and a new facility was also in place to heat treat waste from virus production. The ground above the drains is also now a controlled area and anyone entering it has to follow strict cleansing and disinfecting regimes.
Effluent from the plant also now enters a chemical treatment facility that deactivates any virus, and this equipment is monitored and tested daily."
22 Nov 2007 ~ On non-Redgrave farms the pre-emptive culls returned negative results. When can we vaccinate?
- "On Tuesday [20 Nov 2007], it was confirmed that turkeys culled at 2 other
farms because they might have been exposed to the disease, tested negative.
These were Stone House, in West Harling, and Bridge Farm, in Pulham, both
in Norfolk." BBC
Dr Watkins writes today,
- "When should we vaccinate here against H5N1 in this outbreak? Should it be now - or when there is an obvious trigger; infection on an unrelated poultry farm or the infection found in wild birds in East Anglia?"
22 Nov 2007 ~ Jamie Oliver wants viewers to face the realities of industrial chicken production
- With excellent timing , considering news of another grossly large number of unfortunate birds being slaughtered at another of Redgrave Farm's so-called 'free range' premises, some celebrity chefs are going to try to alert the nation to the reality of mass production of birds for cheap food in the UK.
Andrew Mackenzie, head of factual entertainment at Channel 4, says (Western Morning News )
- "Jamie's simple message, in quite an overt way, will be,
- 'If you knew what happens to a chicken before arriving on your plate, would you change the way you think about chicken? Would you eat it?"'
22 Nov 2007 ~ FMD virus escape? SAPO Licence suspended yet again
- On the possible leak at the Merial site on Monday, Pirbright, Hilary Benn's statement is on the DEFRA site, "....The inspection team judge that while it was possible that live FMD virus had entered the contained drainage system, from their discussions and the evidence gathered they are assured that live virus has not been released to the environment. The extensive layers of biosecurity that we require under the SAPO licence effectively contained the virus in the closed, re-lined drainage system before deactivation in the chemical treatment facility."
The Times reports,"...on Monday Merial discovered a shortfall in the quantity of virus recovered from production batches last week. A faulty valve on a pipe used to separate live virus from waste product was identified as the cause of the leak. "
One wonders how Steve Kendrew is feeling today. It will be remembered that he was hired as a project manager to oversee construction projects at IAH's sites at Pirbright and at Compton, and raised concerns with managers at IAH, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), DEFRA and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). He continued his warnings via e-mails throughout 2006. Many were ignored - and it seems his career at the IAH ended somewhat abruptly. As he said at the time: " “This has cost me dearly. My career is blighted . . . but staying silent would have been a crime by omission.” (See Sunday Times Sep 30 07)
The general feeling - as in this Guardian report - is that no virus can have actually leaked out into the environment around Pirbright.
20 Nov ~ Latest Export and Movement Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) Regulations 2007
- The full Statutory Instrument can be seen at www.defra.gov.uk (24 pages). Schedule 1 gives a list of those areas who are still under restrictions. An emailer wrote this about a recorded message sent by DEFRA to farmers today:
- "...Had lovely mechanical garbled telephone message from Defra this a.m. Unfortunately it was so long by the time they had listed all the counties and places that cannot move and all the different zones which now all have different names our ansaphone lost interest and switched off. Do hope the last bit wasn't the important bit.."
November 19 2007 ~2nd H5N1 outbreak. No vaccination policy in place to prevent possible disaster
- The Guardian reports that
"The site of the new infection - Hill Meadow Farm, in Knettishall..... was identified as having "dangerous contact" with the initial outbreak last week because workers for Redgrave Poultry, which operates all five sites on which culls have taken place, moved between the farms... "
The reluctance to vaccinate birds is looking ever more serious. Unvaccinated birds, prey to the virus, coming into contact with human workers - very few of whom have been inoculated against the human flu viruses with which the bird flu strain might mingle - could so easily lead to a mutation that affects the human population. It is astonishing that such an avoidable situation has been allowed to happen.
November 19 2007 ~ "January is far too late"
- The danger of a pandemic comes when the lethal H5N1 virus can meet a human flu strain and mutate. The Sunday Telegraph reveals that very few people who work with poultry have received anti-flu injections. Free range and pedigree poultry owners who have not been allowed to vaccinate their birds have been plunged yet again into uncertainty and worry - but not even their workers have been given the anti (human) flu jabs. The Sunday Telegraph says
- "vaccinations for poultry workers will not be completed
for another 2 months. ....
Suffolk Primary Care Trust, which covers the infected farm, said it
expected to have vaccinated the workers by January [2008]. But Dr
Graeme Laver, an influenza virologist, said: "January is far too
late."..."
- "it is considered acceptable for us to risk contracting bird fly from our poultry, but we cannot be allowed to have normal flu at the same time because that would mean everyone else would be at risk..."
- "Unfortunately, as with FMD, the anti-vaccination message seems to be the official line, but we are doing what we can to provide people with the other side of the argument...To my understanding, there are no 'silent carriers'. When our vaccine is used as recommended (2 doses 4-6 weeks) apart it prevents transmission of the disease, even with the high challenges used experimentally."
November 18 2007 ~ DEFRA faces making £300m in emergency cuts
- says the Observer in an article about the decision by Hilary Benn to press ahead with the plan to make farmers pay towards the policies in which they have so precious little say. Once again, we see in this article the failure of so many journalists to make a distinction between people who farm the land in order to produce decent food for the country and those agri-profiteers who cannot be termed farmers at all. Those of us who do make such a distinction and think that it matters, will object to such a paragraph as this:
- "....there will also be anger among some farmers over a levy, because the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey last summer came from material which escaped from a government research laboratory in Pirbright.Some disease outbreaks, however, have been caused by clear lapses in biosecurity on farms. The bird flu found at a Bernard Matthews plant last year was traced back to its plant in Hungary".
By means of a legal sleight of hand, animal health policy now so successfully separates people from their ability to take responsibility that it has stolen from owners the freedom to protect the health of their animals. They must submit to the killing of their stock and to the shutting down of movements across swathes of the country. Failure to comply results in criminal charges. Now, with a savage twist of the knife, the worse than bankrupt Ministry is telling them that they themselves must pay for what threatens to put them out of business.
November 18 2007 ~ Doubts deepen as to the existence of active FMD in Cyprus
- On the basis solely of individual serological (NSP) FMD tests in a few animals in Cyprus, over 2000 animals have been killed. Yet there is a terrible illogicality here. It is claimed in the EU that the tests are not specific enough for individual animals. This, it is claimed, is why they are accepted only on a herd basis. Yet in Cyprus we are seeing individual NSP tests being treated as a valid enough reason to assume the presence of active disease. The positive 3ABC tests, detecting Non
Structural Proteins (NSP) might indicate merely the past application of poorly inactivated FMD vaccines and not active virus at all.
Vaccination with modern, potent vaccines tried and tested across the globe is even more effective on islands where borders are not shared. It has not been considered by Cypriot officialdom who wring their hands and blame Brussels. It seems, however, that unofficial, poor vaccines may be behind the present misery One goat farmer, also quoted in the Cyprus Mail, says
- "And if anyone did buy faulty vaccinations from the north, no
one will admit it."
- "Subscribers's attention is drawn to the sentence above. The
possibility that vaccination has taken place in the past within
Cyprus territory(ies), or that vaccinated animals found their way
into local flocks, deserves thorough investigation. Its outcome may
be significant in explaining the detection of several seropositive
adult sheep within a population of susceptible, predominantly
seronegative population of sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs"
November 18 2007 ~ ".. How can you kill 2000 animals for one case of FMD?"
- The report in the Cyprus Mail brings home the fearsome reality of a bureaucratic killing machine in the community and will remind those in the UK of the sight we never want to see again - and fear we shall.
- "Veterinary Service officials dressed from head to toe in all-white
are everywhere as if on the set of a futuristic disaster movie. They
move around farms in white cars, spraying, decontaminating, setting
up check-points, testing animals, and when the order comes in,
culling and burying them"
-
"...... They suffer more because
they look after their sheep day and night. Rain or snow, they are
there for them when they are pregnant, help them to give birth, milk
their young. For them it is very hard, they can't look..."
There are also rumours that the killing off of the animals is highly lucrative for those on the make: "land prices have shot up in this little village..."
How to get one's hands on cheap land in the country is of abiding interest to many - and not only in Cyprus, of course.
November 16 2007 ~ Worries that the intensive poultry industry wants to force regulation on free range and organic bird keepers
- Several emailers have expressed concern that Valerie Elliott's Times article today concludes:
-
"Poultry farmers are incensed by what they perceive as lax biosecurity at the farm which allowed turkeys, geese and ducks to mingle with wild birds near an ornamental lake. Many are now demanding new rules for free-range and organic birds and for the Government to regulate rather than offer guidance about the need to keep outdoor farmed birds away from places where wild birds congregate."
November 16 ~ What tends to be forgotten by consumers who would really rather not know where their cheap meat comes from are facts such as these
- from
Alan Beat's article in Country Smallholding (which should be read in full)
- "...During 2006, some 3.9 million broiler chicks were exported while 2.3 million were imported, 1.6 million turkey poults (hatched birds) were exported while 1 million were imported, and 233,000 tonnes of poultry meat were exported while 451,000 tonnes were imported. There is similar two-way traffic in other categories of live birds, hatching eggs, feedstuffs and waste products (3). Around 75% of this trade is conducted within Europe, but significant amounts of poultry meat are imported from countries such as Thailand and Brazil."
DEFRA, it seems, is still trying to evade this, giving as its reason that "Currently available vaccines have disadvantages in that although they are able to reduce mortality, it is possible that some vaccinated birds would still be capable of transmitting the disease if they became infected whilst not displaying symptoms. This would increase the time taken to detect and eradicate the virus."
This is almost unbelievable and has been used over and over again by DEFRA to give a sort of spurious justification to its refusal to get to grips with vaccination for any notifiable disease. Dr Ruth Watkins - with a great deal more tact and forbearance than many of us have left - comments on this latest DEFRA statement.
16 November 2007 ~ "Brussels made it crystal clear that there was no choice than to proceed with the immediate culling of livestock or risk serious consequences..."
- ProMed quotes this from the Cyprus Mail today - but the Moderator then comments, "....The decision to apply stamping out in the flocks found "infected" on
ground of several positive serological tests in adult animals --
while virus/antigen remaining undetected -- is assumed to be the
outcome of EU policy. Additional commentary, in particular explaining
the decision -- or correcting the said assumption -- will be welcomed." (our italics)
It will be remembered that Paul Sutmoller was quoted with gratitude by the same moderator for his comments, which included the following:
- "..one wonders if
immediate vaccination of the susceptible livestock population of the
island has been considered to bring the outbreak quickly under control.
There are no scientific reasons to believe that under the prevailing conditions of Cyprus stamping-out may be more effective than vaccination in controlling the disease. Is that not exactly why the EU promotes vaccination if FMD occurs in the European part of Turkey?..."
16 November 2007 ~ " What foot and mouth zones really mean?"
- The Farmers Weekly's Stephen Carr explains "what they are really about" in an article which can hardly be termed tongue in cheek since the fury of it blazes from the page. It reflects the growing realisation that what we are witnessing in the realm of so-called animal health has nothing at all to do with the health of animals.
(If it had, the relevant authorities would have embraced vaccination and state of the art diagnostics for Foot and Mouth and for Avian Influenza instead of the continuing nonsense about vaccination masking disease. The bluetongue tendering for vaccine comes because all Member States affected agree that it is our only weapon - but DEFRA's present plan - astonishingly - ignores the EU commitment to pay for all vaccines and half the cost of implementation for the first year. DEFRA is asking farmers to pay and is suggesting voluntary vaccination - an option that has little hope of success. In place of the increasingly closed "Core" stakeholder meetings there would be genuine consultation with those who, together with their unfortunate animals, have up until now been forced to pay the price of these outdated and compassionless policies. )
13 November 2007 ~ "Euro Coop supports vaccination as an alternative to mass slaughtering on prevention grounds of healthy livestock, which is intolerable..
- .. both from a societal and an animal welfare
perspective. Vaccination is also beneficial insofar as it prevents suffering and can help avoid the use
of chemicals..."
It is very cheering indeed to see such an unambiguous statement. Euro Coop is the European community of consumer cooperatives.
Its Secretariat is based in Brussels. Its members are the national organisations of consumer cooperatives in 16 european countries. Created in 1957, Euro Coop today represents over 3,200 local and regional cooperatives, the members of which amount to more than 22 million consumers across Europe. Here is its full position paper on vaccination.
13 November 2007 ~ "We are determined to throw the kitchen sink at this to ensure that farmers are properly compensated."
- Peter Kendall. Listen Again to Farming Today. The action is being brought to both Merial and IAH at Pirbright..."for them to apportion blame among themselves". Nearly 1000 NFU members are joining the class action.
13 November 2007 ~ Bird Flu in Norfolk. More slaughter
- 5,000 birds - turkeys, geese and ducks - are to be slaughtered.
Preliminary tests showed the turkeys had the H5 strain of bird flu, but it is not yet known whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 form of the disease. The RSPB, quoted in the Guardian, warns against the assumption that the disease had spread to poultry from wild birds. , No wild birds have been found with avian flu in Europe since late August and the autumn migration is now largely over. See warmwell's Bird Flu page The outbreak is in a "free range" farm. See also the warmwell chronology of the Bernard Matthews case - still very much a mystery. UPDATE In a television interview, Fred Landeg said that it's closely related to this summer's strain in the Czech Republic and Germany. (BBC)
Monday 12 November 2007 ~ Anderson FMD Review: 2007
- Readers may agree with us that it is important to put in writing, however brief, one's views about
- whether relevant points from the Lessons to be Learned Report and Royal Society Inquiry on the 2001 outbreak were implemented;
- whether new lessons might be drawn from the handling of the 2007 outbreak
Sunday 11 November 2007 ~ "The worldwide rise in food prices is, in part, the result of using maize for fuel rather than for food."
- It is now being widely accepted that the end of cheap oil has arrived. The importance to Britain of its own food has increased - yet the government shows little understanding of or sympathy for the crisis in farming. Indeed there are many who suspect the present government would like to see an end to UK livestock farming altogether. But the knock-on effects of dwindling oil will soon be felt by everyone - and not just at the petrol pumps. Independent on Sunday:
- "It also changes the sense of power: Russia and the Middle East have become more important; Western Europe and the US less so.....
.... If China is to go on using all the additional oil that is available, or more, the rest of the world will have to get by with less. This makes the present surge in the oil price different from all previous oil shocks: it is caused by rising demand rather than restricted supply..."
Sunday 11 November 2007 ~ "encourage the writing of clear and reader-friendly English."
-
Our attention has been drawn to a timely guide (pdf) "....... the overriding aim in both parts of the
Guide is to facilitate and encourage the writing of clear and reader-friendly English.
Writing in clear language can be difficult at the Commission..." It is an interesting document of which DEFRA might take note
Saturday 10 November 2007 ~ The 150 km "high risk" area demonstrates "regionalisation"
- How ironic it is to see regionalisation used at this point in November when the UK could have asked that the vaccination regulations be allowed to apply to Surrey alone This could have been done right from the start. Consequently very much smaller zone be put in place while the rest of the UK carried on as normal. But, without either vaccination nor on-site rapid diagnosis (requiring non-invasive swabs) the outbreak was allowed to drag on until September 30th and hundreds of animals have been bled over and over again in a relentless attempt to show freedom from disease.
Although farms within this new zone, (chosen by the UK itself rather than Brussels, it seems), are miles away from any likelihood of FMD infection, they are to be treated as a region in which no movements may take place. See what Daniel Hannan, MEP for the South East, had to say on the subject, while Peter Kendall was even more outspoken. The amendment to Commission Decision 2007/554/EC unanimously agreed by SCoFCAH on Tuesday now does allow the rest of Great Britain apart from the FMD "region" to revert to normality in the matter of meat, milk and their products - but this 150 kilomentre zone is to pay the price. The decision will not be formally adopted until 16 November at the earliest. It could possibly be 19 November. As for live exports, the three month rule must still be seen to apply. (We would love to hear from anyone who does not find this Pdf file almost wholly incomprehensible. Link mended. Apologies. It is a badly scanned EU document.)
Friday November 9 2007 ~ Latest FMD report - and farewell to D. Reynolds
- For the first time on the 6th November the follow-up report 13 for FMD received by the OIE from Dr Debby Reynolds reported that the "source of infection " was "Laboratory escape". Today's report (no 14) finds us back to the older refrain: "source of infection - Unknown or inconclusive".
What is unlikely to dither is Dr Reynolds decision to take early retirement.
You may - if you so choose - read on this DEFRA page entitled "Chief vet leaves with plaudits after four years service" how Dr Reynolds seems convinced that this Summer she "built a disease control strategy which is the best in the world"
Friday November 9 2007 ~ The 1968 Northumberland Report advised vaccination and testing to check for disease before slaughter
- An email just received reminds us that it is not just the recommendations of the reports following the 2001 disaster that have been largely ignored. Four decades ago the Northumberland Report quoted the Gowers Committee whose members showed that they understood the "....mental anguish it may cause to those who suffer its consequences, and the shattering disaster, not computable in terms of money, that it may bring to a farmer who has to see the work of a lifetime destroyed in a day.”
What is even more significant is - from Part Two - paragraph 36 "...Diagnostic techniques are now available which can show the presence of virus before clinical signs appear and we therefore recommended that material (including samples taken by probing) from all suspected in contact animals that have been traced should be tested in the laboratory for the presence of virus." Send comments to the Anderson Review of 2007 FMD
Friday November 9 2007 ~The Zones explained
- Concise, easy to understand advice from the Farmers Guardian. Both FMD and Bluetongue. What the rules are. What you can and cannot do. In English. (Plus a good map).
Friday November 9 2007 ~ "I tried to respond to your blog but I fell foul of the Google log in..."
- What Dr Ruth Watkins wanted to say was this:
- " Surely Cyprus has the option of vaccination against FMD? What did the EU visitors advise? Even if it turns out to be Bluetongue that gave those sheep symptoms (and some serotypes and strains of Bluetongue are very mild) no harm is done by FMD vaccination- but slaughtering the cypriot farmers flocks - some as precautionary measures- is appalling. One must find evidence of new seroconversions or above all the virus in animals acutely infected to be sure there is an outbreak. The farmers may have bought sheep from an area where FMD infection has occurred, such as Turkey; the animals could have been infected a year ago or more. If animals are slaughtered without taking proper specimens, they will will not solve the question of whether they have FMD or and Bluetongue. What a shame Roger Breeze cannot go out there with his kit and do PCR for both viruses on some of the ill sheep."
Friday November 9 2007 ~ "The focus of our inquiry was to find a better way of handling this dreadful disease in future, in the firm belief that what happened in 2001 was unacceptable..."
- So said Gavin McCrone, Vice-Chairman, Royal Society of Edinburgh Inquiry into Foot and Mouth Disease, on the 18 August 2002 It is a grim exercise to look again at the recommendations of all the Inquiries as one prepares a submission to the latest Anderson Review. How many of the points, so carefully arrived at by these earnest reports, were put into practice in 2007? Here is a summary of the recommendations. Accountability matters.
Send comments to the Anderson Review of 2007 FMD
November 9th ~ At least in 2001 no one pretended that the panicky mass cull was allowed by law.
- In 2007, on a minimum of 33 locations, all animals were summarily killed. It is hoped that readers will be able to take the time to remind Iain Anderson that his first recommendation "to revise powers under the Animal Health Act to ensure laws for slaughter were clarified" allowed - in 2007 - the killing of hundreds of healthy animals to be legally carried out. Only a handful of animals on the 8 premises designated IPs were actually infected. Was that what the Anderson Inquiry intended?
The decision not to vaccinate ignored his second recommendation: "Vaccination must form part of future control of a disease outbreak". If a "senatorial" group, recommended by his Inquiry, was set up then one has to ask what were the qualifications for inclusion and how far DEFRA listened to such a group. There is a lack of expert input; the failure to provide adequate research funding could be said to have led to the disaster itself. Their recommendations of the reports seem to have been so forgotten that one wonders what all the time and expense - and expertise - in producing them was for. Send comments to the Anderson Review of 2007 FMD
November 9th ~ Funding to provide for a diagnostic on-farm test, recommended by the Royal Society, was not forthcoming.
- Only now are we in sight (but it is still some way off) of a test that Pirbright helped develop It was not able to be used during that August/September crisis and is not ready now. Yet cheap, portable on-site diagnostic kits, for which training takes precisely five minutes (I have been so trained) are now routinely used in the former Soviet Bloc countries to test for animal pathogens including FMD. And, the most heartbreaking irony of all is that a prototype machine was offered to the UK in 2001. The action of Sir David King and others in rejecting it is a decision long overdue for proper appraisal.
Thursday November 8 2007 ~"If the veterinary service does not show me in writing whose animals actually have this disease, no one will enter my farm to kill my animals,”
- Farmers in Cyprus are tearful, angry and disbelieving at the nightmare into which they have been plunged. New blog
Thursday November 8 2007 ~ "Even farmers who have no export trade now find themselves hampered by restrictions on their domestic activities; and all to pacify the rest of the EU."
- Like so many of us, Daniel Hannan, MEP for the South East, says the EU restrictions on livestock exports are for commercial rather than scientific reasons.
- "Pause, for a moment, and think of what these men and women have been through in recent years: two foot and mouth outbreaks, one inflicted on them by their own government; the decline in world prices; bluetongue; late subsidy payments; floods.
English farmers must feel as though they are living through a series of Biblical murrains..." Read his Blog here
Thursday November 8 2007 ~ Report FMD SCOFCAH
Page 5 shows the chronology of the infected IPs, page 6 shows holding where animals were killed dated October 15th, page 8 is entitled "additional culling" but gives no details of numbers or species.
Read in full (Defra pdf file)
Reports of the "enhanced surveillance" can give no real idea of the amount of bleeding that has been done on the hundreds of animals in the area. One NFU spokesman said that 'nearly every animal in the South East had been nearly bled to death with so many tests being done to show we are clear of FMD - but that hadn't been enought to satisfy the EU'.
It has been described by a local vet as "out of all proportion to the risk."
Wednesday November 7 2007 ~“I told them to wait for the final results. Then they started making me offers...”
- The misery of Cyprus continues (see latest Blog) One farmer, Demetris Dirris, fought back tears during the House Agriculture Committee hearing on Monday. He said his livestock were like his children:
-
“They offered me £150 for every adult sheep… and £20 for every lamb [to be culled]. I said to them, ‘I wouldn’t even accept £1,150.’
“Then we sat down and looked at another price estimate. I told them to get up and leave and not to come back. The next day they returned, and this time they didn’t even bother to talk to me or ask me to sign anything. They just went ahead and executed the animals,” Dirris said.
Wednesday November 7 2007 ~" the EU appears to be extending the agony for hundreds of farmers for no worthwhile benefit in terms of controlling the disease."
- Peter Kendall, quoted in www.farminguk.com speaks for many when he expresses the bafflement and anger felt by farmers finding themselves caught under yet more new restrictions - "on hundreds of farms miles away from the centre of the outbreak". He calls the new controls "perverse and unreasonable" .
-
"How can farmers be expected to understand a situation in which they can move animals across a boundary line this week, but will be banned from doing so next week, when there is not a scrap of evidence to suggest that the disease is still around? Up to now, we have been prepared to accept the decisions of the veterinary authorities here and in Brussels as a necessary price to be paid for stamping out foot and mouth disease..."
UPDATE For many, confusion still reigns. DEFRA announced yesterday that the new FMD restricted Zone would now include the old Surveillance Zone, that movement restrictions would remain in place and the BBC reported .
The SCOFCAH decision, likely to take effect from 14 November, has split the UK into three FMD areas. The "high risk" area immediately around the IPs are allowed no meat exports. From the so-called "moderate risk" zone, covering a 150km area around it, meat and meat products can be exported if they have the paperwork to prove a 21 day standstill and residency period (7 day standstill in the case of pigs) The new rule, stipulates that animals cannot be moved out of the "moderate risk" zone.
No live export is allowed from anywhere at present.
Wednesday November 7 2007 ~ Superbug ESBL E. coli has been found on 32 UK farms since 2004
- ESBLs are proteins that give
their host organism - in this particular case,
_E. coli_ - the ability to resist a wide range
of antibiotics like penicillin. The papers may well give the impression that humans are at risk from farm animals - but no one yet knows very much about the situation.
ProMed reports on this. A Moderator writes:
- "The first isolation of an ESBL in _Escherichia
coli_ (_E. coli_) in Great Britain in food
producing animals was made by the Veterinary
Laboratories Agency (VLA) in autumn 2004. ...
The prevalence of
cattle testing positive for CTX-M-14 containing
_E. coli_, among the herd, has continued to rise
at each sampling visit, despite the measures
taken since the initial finding in 2004. The
source of the infection was not determined..." Read in full
Tuesday November 6 2007 ~SCoFCAH decision
- The new DEFRA page today reports that the Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health unanimously agreed further to relax the export restrictions currently in place on fresh meat and hides. "The changes will also affect the import of susceptible live animals. We are still awaiting details of when the Commission expect the new measures to come into force."
All this suggests that the EU FMD regulations are not set quite as permanently in stone as many believe. If the rules forbidding trade until after three months can be changed when SCoFCAH feels it appropriate, would it really be so difficult to appeal for changes to be made in the out of date and scientifically unjustified rules on vaccination for FMD? The answer to this depends on how far the rules were put there for veterinary and safety reasons - and how far they are mere protectionism, having less to do with animal health than with protecting the meat trade.
Tuesday November 6 2007 ~ New publication might speed up validation of individual-based NSP tests?
- There has never been a case of a vaccinated animal spreading FMD - but the concern about vaccinated "carriers" persists and seems to many to be able to justify continuing trade restrictions against animals vaccinated against foot and mouth. A new publication "Modelling studies to estimate the prevalence of
foot-and-mouth disease carriers after
reactive vaccination" Proc Biol Sci. 2007 Oct 30, by
M. E. Arnold1, D. J. Paton , E. Ryan , S. J. Cox and J. W. Wilesmith is now available on the internet. ( We are grateful to FMD News for alerting us to this).
Extract:
- " sensitivity for carrier detection can be optimized by
adopting an individual-based testing regime in which all animals in all vaccinated herds are tested and
positive animals rather than herds are culled."
Tuesday November 6 2007 ~ FMD restricted zone still in place over Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex.
- (See BBC) Yesterday, the FMD Surveillance Zone was lifted and became part of the Restricted Zone. Fred Landeg has said that there has been "extensive surveillance work" in the old surveillance zone but only negative results have been returned. DEFRA says "Discussions are ongoing with the European Commission regarding further changes to allow the easing of export restrictions".
Tuesday November 6 2007 ~ "I’m responsible for saying that it’s their responsibility"
- The Welsh Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, has told the annual autumn conference of NFU Cymru that the UK Government is morally responsible for the leak, and she would continue to press for compensation under the “polluter pays” principle, adding, "..I’m responsible for saying that it’s their responsibility and that farmers have been hit through no fault of their own.”
See icwales.icnetwork.co.uk "Ms Jones was responding to NFU Clwyd chairman Ken Bellis who asked, “Why is it that the UK Government has set aside £13bn for consequential losses for people who invest in companies and lose their share money and hands out £30m to save Northern Rock but in Wales we get £6m and only £3m of that goes to farmers?"
Monday November 5 2007 ~ The Emerson's continuing sense of bereavement
- Portable on-site diagnostic tests that can detect virus before clinical signs appear - such as those used now so successfully in the former Soviet Bloc countries - have been rejected by the UK for seven years - presumably while the UK races to help produce its own commercial version.
On Your Farm this week showed what it is like to be on the sharp end of the 'killing without testing' policy. It may be remembered that the animal welfare friendly farmers at Hunts Hill Farm thought their sacrifice (none of their free range animals proved after death to have been infected) was going to mean that theirs was the last farm where killing would need to take place. But a minimum of 33 holdings were killed out in the end. The Emersons are too much affected by the death of the animals they had cared for to continue to keep breeding cows. In spite of her stoicism, going into the deserted pig barn proved too much for Mrs Emerson. The UK policy depends on the kindly decency of such farmers - but it lets them down. Those of us who know how and why these scenes could have been avoided may feel that we have a duty to express our concerns to the Anderson Review.
Monday November 5 2007 ~ Killing without first testing to check for infection. We actually had killing taking place on a minimum of 33 holdings.
- A couple of weeks ago, (Hansard 24 October) Peter Ainsworth asked "at how many premises during the recent outbreaks of foot and mouth disease culling was undertaken before the receipt of test results." The answer was chilling.
- "With the exception of the first infected premises (IP1) where provisional positive laboratory results were available, authorisation to cull the remaining premises was made under the slaughter on suspicion or dangerous contact policies. Some of the subsequent premises may have been subject to earlier surveillance visits and blood testing, but culling was initiated at all the remaining 16 premises prior to the final laboratory test results being received."
Monday November 5 2007 ~For those who are going to write to Iain Anderson's Review
- Literally hundreds of animals killed were free of disease. 2,160 animals were compulsorily killed. There were 24 individual locations where killing took place as a result of the 8 "IP"s For the 7 so-called 'Dangerous Contacts' and 2 even more chillingly termed "Slaughter on Suspicion" there was also a minimum of 9 holdings
Thus killing took place on 24 holdings plus at least 9 more, and even more than that if any of the SOS and DCs were made up of multiple holdings.
So, from the escape of virus from Pirbright that could, with swift use of ring vaccination, have been cleared up within days, we actually had killing taking place on a minimum of 33 holdings.
"At least one animal tested positive for foot and mouth disease at all eight of the infected premises" (which is why they are allowed to be termed "Infected Premises" ) but "no animals at the two remaining 'slaughter on suspicion' and seven 'dangerous contact' premises tested positive for foot and mouth disease" It will be remembered that a "premises" could comprise several separate holdings. Readers may like to consider this sort of thing when expressing their view of the handling of the Surrey outbreak. ( useful information from Parliamentary Questions.)
The Anderson Review is mentioned below and on this DEFRA page.
November 4 2007 ~ "angry farmers blocked the entrance to the two farms"
- Cyprus wanted to kill "up to 300 goats and sheep" today before tests are returned tomorrow but the scheduled cull did not go ahead after angry farmers blocked the entrance to the two farms. Reuters "Authorities said they were also extending a quarantine zone around two suspect farms in the southern district of Larnaca."
How depressing that Cyprus too is clinging to the trading advantage of "FMD free without vaccination" instead of pushing for these outdated rules to be changed. It is perverse that animals cannot be protected with the boon of the available modern potent vaccines and the technology of on-site diagnosis.
UPDATE On the basis of "some clinical signs" the killing has gone ahead today. It seems that lab tests have even now not been received but 2 EU veterinary experts are in Larnaca. See Bloomberg
November 4 2007 ~ Cyprus on FMD high alert again.
- The 1500 animals in danger of being culled last Wednesday and that were reprieved by a negative result from Pirbright a few days ago are back in the firing line since Cyprus too, it seems, would prefer to kill than protect. See www.int.iol.co.za
We find it quite extraordinary that - in spite of the potency and success of FMD vaccines, the idea is still being repeated in all parts of the Western World as "fact", that there are "no readily available vaccines that would eliminate the need to depopulate animals" The untruths continue. The bottom line is the trade protectionism advantages that "FMD free without vaccination" status confers on the states that eschew modern techniques of vaccination and diagnosis.
November 2 2007 ~ Surveillance Zone to go at last
- DEFRA says it will be lifted on Monday 5 November "subject to there being no change in the disease situation and the completion of the necessary surveillance testing."
See DEFRA page which also says, "Discussions are ongoing with the European Commission regarding further changes to allow the easing of export restrictions"
November 2 2007 ~ a moral and financial responsibility to compensate
- The Farmers Guardian reports on
the £25million bill sent by Scotland to the British Government. Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead said he expected the bill to be paid and accused Gordon Brown of 'bottling it', leaving Scotland's farmers and crofters in financial meltdown:
- “Despite the fact that this summer's foot-and-mouth outbreaks occurred hundreds of miles away in the south of England, the impact shattered many of our farmers and crofters here in Scotland, particularly in the sheep sector, both economically and emotionally... in 2007, the UK Government has the moral, and financial responsibility to compensate Scotland and they should get on with it."
November 1 2007 ~ "we should use the word killing" not the euphemism. "culling" is far too soft a word to describe what goes on, says local vet.
- Please see today's blog. ( It is sometimes hard to contain one's anger but this information based website is not perhaps the best place for it.)
Wednesday October 31 2007 ~ Test results for quarantined sheep in Cyprus expected this afternoon
- Pirbright is testing samples from the Cypriot sheep for FMD,
Reuters says that
" a foot and mouth outbreak would have a devastating effect on Cyprus's animal husbandry industry with up to 115,000 animals facing a cull."
So no vaccination policy there either and for the same unethical but lucrative reasons. At least these animals on Cyprus have been quarantined rather than killed first and questions asked afterwards. No such precaution on the 24 holdings in Surrey this year affected by the 8 IPs. It is proving very difficult to discover from each of the epidemiological reports on the DEFRA site and the 10 separate epidemiological reports submitted by Debby Reynolds to the OIE (see links here) exactly how many animals were in fact infected and what were the various justifications given (if any) for the killing of so many healthy ones. As Dr Ruth Watkins commented yesterday,
- "I only wish that IAH would do the same for FMD; to give out the information on its screening by RT-PCR and their work on the sequencing of the FMD virus from every infected premise so that the timeline of infection is confirmed. It might also rule out intervening infections ie in deer between IP1 and IP2 and IP 5..."
UPDATE NO FMD in Cyprus. Test results received by Cyprus today, See www.eubusiness.com (registration required)
Wednesday October 31 2007 ~ "the real winners from the subsidy culture are the already-rich landowners and agri-businesses, not the small family farmers..."
- ..says an article in the Western Mail
That interesting phrase used by DEFRA, "core stakeholders", does not refer to people running small family farms but to those who wield some power and whose greatest interest is in protecting trade and profits. Rather than fight to change the arcane EU rules that are also mainly about protectionism, it is unfortunate that so many agri-businessmen fight vaccination at every turn. Small farmers are having to face a bleak future but they are still largely regarded as fat cat whingers by an ignorant public. It is these farmers who want to protect their animals but they are being destroyed by losses incurred in the wake of animal disease.
A return to sanity would involve dealing head on with animal disease itself - getting in first, putting modern vaccination strategies in place and making sure that surveillance and testing is state of the art. It is heartbreakingly obvious. Veterinary skill informed by the best science and technology prefers to start with the welfare of the animal and its primary aim is keeping disease at bay.
Unfortunately- as very few would deny - our present policies for dealing with disease are governed by money and politics. The perpetrators, who allow no spotlight of criticism to illuminate their decisions to slaughter - are sublimely unconcerned by the demise of the small farmer and of his animals.
Tuesday October 30 2007 ~ Comments about the outbreak and its handling are invited by 16 November 2007
- As we mentioned below, Dr Iain Anderson is once again going to chair a review of the Government's reaction to the 2007 Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak. He has been asked to review lessons drawn from the 2001 outbreak and identify any others arising from the current outbreak. Comments have to be received by 16th November. See also www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
The decision not to use emergency vaccination was astonishing. The handling by DEFRA illustrates the woeful lack of understanding within the Department of viral disease. All the conditions for immediate success had been met. We knew the source. We knew the strain. We had the laboratory within arms length and we knew the timescale. The virus could have been stopped in its tracks within days by ring vaccination from the outside in.
2000 animals in Surrey would not have had to be slaughtered and nor would the obscenely termed "welfare culls" of half a million healthy hill lambs have been needed. It seems highly likely that the EU would have been sympathetic to such emergency action and would have looked with favour on regionalisation of the immediate area so that the absurd situation of a general country-wide shut down need never have arisen. It could well have led to the outdated regulations receiving critical re-evaluation.
Because rapid on-site testing was not done except for antibodies, only a handful of the 2000 animals killed turned out to have been infected. If people do not make these points there will be no barriers at all against yet another anodyne report being written and self-congratulation all round.
Monday October 29 2007 ~ A farmer's story: 'It's all about control of food production'
- We see from Geoffrey Leans article in the Independent today that the government has been using taxpayers' "tens of millions of pounds a year to boost research into modified crops and foods" Constant claims of impartiality on GM technology and repeated promises to promote environmentally friendly, "sustainable" farming now seem hollow. Internal documents obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act reveal that DEFRA allowed the biotech giant BASF to plant 450,000 modified potatoes in British fields and officials
- "repeatedly went to remarkable lengths to make sure the trial conditions, supposed to protect the environment and farmers, were "agreeable" to BASF"
It is hard not to speculate on possible reasons why the UK government envisages the end of livestock farming with apparent lack of concern. ( See also warmwell's GM page for report on latest research in Newcastle on organic food advantages and GMO concerns in Europe - which show no sign of abating.)
Monday October 29 2007 ~ The escape of virus results in at least half a million wasted, incinerated sheep ... and "it will not just be the sheep that disappear"...
- One of the results of the government's decision that it was not worth taking seriously the often expressed worries about biosafety and funding at Pirbright is - as the Guardian tells us this morning - that
-
"250,000 healthy Welsh hill lambs will be culled and incinerated in the next few weeks to avoid a welfare disaster. The move follows restrictions imposed during the latest foot and mouth disease outbreak and a similar cull of up to 250,000 lambs now taking place in Scotland."
- "all the options were illegal or would have distorted the market"
Sunday October 28 ~ DEFRA spent £1 billion on management consultants - while the Pirbright site repairs were urgently needed and flood defences were cut
- The Sunday Telegraph says that DEFRA more than doubled its spending on information technology specialists, management consultants and temporary staff while cutting £15 million from its flood defence budget.
-
"Written parliamentary answers show that as spending on consultants spiralled into the hundreds of millions of pounds in 2006 and 2007, officials dragged their heels over vital repair work to effluent pipes at a research centre that would eventually cause the foot and mouth outbreak."
Friday Oct 26 2007 ~ More clarity on the 'tainted lamb' issue
- It was breeding sheep purchased from Kirby Stephen auction mart which
ended up in the abattoir. Such animals carry
veterinary treatments such as treatment for scab. Auctions are ultra careful to
ensure that breeding sales are kept apart from slaughter sales. Usually
these are held on different days.
Animals destined for slaughter don't require these
treatments -which should
not be allowed into the food chain. The Dectomax injection is the one
which has caused concern as it has shown some effects on laboratory
animals.We hear that
-
" A sharp-nosed Trading Standards Official at the abattoir
noticed the "dip smell" and investigated further. Some animals had been
processed and the intestines had been transported away to make sausages
for a supermarket.( Morrisons) So a lot of stock had to be removed from
the shelves for very good reasons."
- " It must have been a hell of a sharp nose to detect the smell of an injection!"
- "Something definitely stinks here, the vet supposedly smelt sheep dip, but Dectomax injection was found to be the problem. DECTOMAX DOESN'T SMELL!"
Thursday Oct 25 2007 ~ Comment from Cumbria
- One of the most serious criticisms many of us have about DEFRA and the armchair science that so wrongly informs policy is that very few in London seem to have any idea at all of the tragic impact of what they are doing. Here is Nick in Cumbria, who felt that a warmwell comment about the situation in Wales and Scotland gave a falsely positive idea of the grim situation in England.
- "I live in a rural area where hill farming is on its knees and I live in a valley where, not that long ago, there were 60 dairy farms. There is now ONE! Most of the traditional farms I know of will cease production with this generation of farmers when the current shepherds are too old to carry on. Their children have all long since fled the nest in search of affordable housing and a decently paid job. Who will now run these farms?
The wonderful Herdwick, exclusively bred here for hundreds of years is on the verge of extinction.
The whole fabric of the traditional rural community in Cumbria is close to melt down! This is England, and the situation is as dire here as anywhere, probably worse."
Thursday Oct 25 2007 ~"we will do everything in our power to help them" Gordon Brown yesterday
- It was pointed out that Secretary of State's best guess at losses incurred was £100 million,
- " but that differs sharply from the figure that emerged from a meeting in my constituency last night, which suggested that the sheep industry alone would lose £520 million. The outbreak is fundamentally different from previous outbreaks. The Government are responsible for this outbreak because they licensed the premises... "
Thursday Oct 25 2007 ~ the vet, the 'sheep dip' and DEFRA's insistence on insecticide
-
Another update via email: "I heard this week (before this story broke) that a lorry load of sheep for slaughter had been impounded at an abattoir in the North, due to 'taint' . This turned out to be the use of strong anti - midge disinfectant, sprayed all over the lorry in accordance with Defra guidelines - of course - before it could travel with slaughter stock to an abattoir outside the bluetongue zones.
The smell had been picked up in their fleece from the lorry. Don't know if this could be the basis for this bit of mischief as well?"
Thursday Oct 25 2007 ~ "there are plenty of lambs available for meat without moving into the breeding stock.."
- Also on the subject of the FSA scare, Michael adds another angle:
- "In the north of England over the last two weeks there have been sales of breeding stock. As part of the conditions of sale they have to be dipped for scab and possibly drenched for worms. As the price was so low for all the stock Welsh Country Foods, with an abattoir in north Wales, purchased a number of ewe lambs. It would seem that they ignored the withdrawal periods needed for the drugs concerned and slaughtered the lambs and supplie