From: alan & rosie beat [mailto:alan.rosie@lineone.net]
Sent: 14 June 2002 15:27
To: WMNletters
Subject: FMD Waste


Don't incinerate  -  vaccinate!

Sir,

Your excellent newspaper revealed on 13th June that 42,000 tonnes of "meat and bonemeal" from animals slaughtered during the
foot and mouth crisis was still being stored, awaiting high temperature incineration.  The overall tone of your report was
that this staggering disclosure means that more incinerator capacity will be needed for future outbreaks, as even this
government has grasped that neither open pyres or mass burial pits can ever be used again.

But there is a far better solution to the problem of carcase disposal - don't incinerate, vaccinate!  As a control strategy
against foot and mouth disease, vaccination removes the need for mass slaughter and eliminates such obscene waste as "MBM"
altogether.

Just look at Ururguay - a country with roughly the same land area and livestock numbers as the UK.  An outbreak of FMD in
2001 was countered initially by slaughter on the infected farms, but within days the slaughter policy was replaced by mass
vaccination, as soon as it became clear that the epidemic was already widespread through movement of infected livestock.

The key facts are:

#  A total of 6937 animals were destroyed and buried (5,093 cattle, 1511 sheep and 333 pigs) in the first week

#  After that, infected premises and contact farms were quarantined with prohibition of livestock movements until 30 days
after the last case - but they were NOT slaughtered

#  April 27th - all livestock movement banned

 #  May 5th - vaccination of all cattle commenced (no other livestock)

#  June 7th  - vaccination of 10.6 million cattle completed and movement restrictions relaxed

#  June 15th  - second round of cattle vaccination commenced

#  July 22nd  -  second round of vaccination completed

#  Most vaccinations were carried out by farmers

#  Average rate of vaccination 350,000 cattle per day

#  Last case of FMD recorded on 21st August (there were 2057 cases in total)

#  Export trade to EU and other markets re-commenced on 1st November

#  The total cost of eradicating the epidemic was 13.6 million US$

#  Sheep exhibited such low rates of infection that they played no role in the epidemic

It requires the most prejudiced mindset to deny the convincing success of the Uruguay control policy.  This so-called
"third-world" country extinguished a widely-dispersed epidemic, similar in all main respects to the UK pattern, within four
months from first to last case, and began re-exporting a further two months later.  Both slaughter and costs were minimal,
and insignificant by comparison to the UK.  Note especially that the close proximity of a fully-susceptible sheep population
to the cattle did not influence the course of the epidemic, and that even infected premises were not slaughtered out after
the first week!  Quarantine, vaccination and movement restriction were sufficient measures to eliminate the disease.

Mass slaughter simply cannot be justified against these facts.

Yours sincerely

Alan Beat
Smallholders Online
www.smallholders.org

The Bridge Mill
Bridgerule
Holsworthy
Devon EX22 7EL

Te:  01288 381341

References:  See attached report - source, the Uruguay embassy.
                    Other details by private communication from Dr Paul Sutmoller, international FMD consultant