Warmwell.com

Warmwell "Front Page" Archive 2001 - 2004

Jan 23 2004 ~ Zimbabwe faces new FMD devastation - its appeals have led only to "paltry doses of vaccines"

Jan 23 ~ Mr Owen Paterson has tabled a series of Commons questions about DEFRA non-payment

Jan 20 - 23 ~ "Questions should be asked about research which relies so heavily on data produced by the industry itself"

Jan 20 - 23 ~ Hill farms teetering on the breadline

Jan 20 - 23 ~ "Common, co-ordinated epidemiological studies leading to a common control policy should be sought and supported by the international community."

Jan 20 - 23 ~ an "unarguable case" for a move away from intensive chemical farming methods.

Jan 20 - 23 ~ Civil Contingencies Bill will allow sweeping new powers

Jan 20 ~ Defra's Horse Passport Pantomime

Jan 19 ~ "I am pleased to know that the Commission is keeping up the pressure on the Government, which still has plenty to answer for over foot and mouth disease." Giles Chichester MEP

Jan 16 - 19 ~ the courts have finally called Defra's bluff on a campaign of intimidation.... Of 1200 cases investigated, the National Audit Office last year found that only 18 involved fraud, non proven and most now abandoned.

Jan 16 - 19 ~ "Defra's tactics have been comprehensively ruled as illegal."

Jan 16- 19 ~ Frustrated NFU dairy farmer will make a dramatic protest on Monday

Jan 16 - 19 ~ "DEFRA has abandoned its proposals to impose a 150km distance limit on the movement of livestock

Jan 16 ~ “It's frightening that this is the way they are treating people who did their best to help them beat the outbreak. It's cynical and dishonourable."

Jan 15 ~"The reason we have tended to go in the direction of wind power is the (EU) subsidy..."

Jan 14 2004 ~ "We are being asked to believe that a department which is regarded as being notoriously dysfunctional is now being uncharacteristically prudent."

Jan 13 2004~ "...Seven months after the culling of our healthy animals, Fred Landeg sent us a seven page letter telling us that our farm was still highly infectious"

Jan 12/13 2004 ~ "There has been no instance of vaccinated carriers of the virus being the cause of the introduction or recurrence of FMD."

Jan 12/13 ~ Foot and mouth disease: facing the new dilemmas

Jan 12 2004 ~"the paradigm 'free of FMD without vaccination' is not synonymous with 'risk free'"

Jan 12 2004 ~ James Scudamore refers to "supposedly effective vaccines"

Jan 12 2004 ~ Scrapie "the compulsory EU scheme takes effect in April 2005. Implementing the EU schemes will be a major task..."

Jan 12 2004 ~ "growing evidence to suggest organic farming has improved animal welfare.."

Jan 10 2004~ Munich's Tageszeitung downplays risk of BSE after flaws in testing are reported

Jan 10 ~ emergency vaccination would be considered...part of the control strategy.....where measures additional to culling.... were needed.

Jan 10 2004 ~ DEFRA "does not believe there are any valid unpaid and outstanding invoices, submitted by businesses to the Department, for work undertaken in connection with the foot and mouth outbreak. "

Jan 10 2004 ~ Yet another alleged "fraud" case and its effect on the family concerned.

Jan 9 2004 ~ "put through hell"

Jan 7 2004 ~ "This was a heavy handed prosecution by Defra of a farmer struggling to cope with the foot and mouth epidemic."

Jan 7 2004 ~ Almost £20 million has been spent investigating suspected fraudulent claims from contractors for work to deal with the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001 ...

January 6 2004 ~ DEFRA refuses to allow pet pig out of the house "this can spread the risk of foot and mouth disease" says official

January 6 2004 ~BSE: "We have made a decision to depopulate those bull calves"

January 4 2004 ~ "...a disease that is not contagious between animals nor is contagious between people. "

Jan 4 2004 ~ the decision to grant permission for the monkey laboratory was a forgone conclusion, predetermining the result of the inquiry

Jan 4 2004 ~ Interruption to Warmwell

January 3 2004 ~ Telegraph asserts that humans can contract a form of the disease by eating infected meat

January 2 2004 ~" BSE 'panic' "

January 1 2004 ~ New Year Message: The Archbishop of Canterbury

December 30 ~"Apocalypse never"

Dec 30 2003 ~"Lord Melchett will suggest that the forces behind intensive agriculture have refused to accept the environmental, human health or social damage of the system as a serious problem."

December 29 2003 ~ Farming folly

Dec 29 2003 ~ Canada angry as American officials claim BSE-infected cow came from Alberta

December 28/29 2003 ~ "...cow blood and fat can still be fed to America's calves; and it often is, especially on dairy farms because it will boost milk yield. .." (Sunday Herald)

December 28/29 2003 ~ Alberta and Saskatchewan are known to be TSE hotspot zones

December 28/29 2003 ~ Ironically, three months ago, officials from the U.S. together with others from Canada and Mexico, wrote a letter to the 164-nation OIE

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~" It is all but certain that their entire 4,000-strong herd will have to be slaughtered so that the brains and spinal tissue of the other animals can be tested."Independent

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ BSE in Washington state: "The news played havoc on financial markets.."

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ First 'mad cow' case rattles US

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ M-tuberculosis complex genetic probe has " proven to be 100% accurate in predicting the presence of bovine TB in 449 cases the DNR has tested through 2002."

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ Hemispheric Conference on the eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease - Houston, Texas, USA - 3 and 4 March 2004

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ "Some procedural shortcomings" Misty.

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ Interruption to Warmwell

Dec 22 - 29 2003 ~ "The countryside matters. It matters more than Treasury borrowing limits or overspending."

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA's Contingency Plan fulfills the requirements of Section 32B of the Animal Health Act - to make "legal" pre-emptive or 'firebreak' culling

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA's Contingency Plan. A MINIMUM of 5 days to elapse before vaccination implemented?

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ New Contingency Plan incorporates the Animal Health Act 2002 - slaughter of healthy animals could be easier

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ Problems "now" overcome?

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ "The latest act of pure genius"....Muckspreader in Private Eye

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ Why are "pig pyramids" exempted?

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA - late payments

Nov 30 - Dec 6 2003 ~ DEFRA announces progress on Vaccination as an "additional control strategy for FMD"

Nov 30- Dec 6 2003 ~ "...unnecessarily bureaucratic framework"

Nov 28 2003 ~"It is time that family farmers learned those names and addresses so that a united resistance can begin in earnest"

Nov 28 2003 ~"...one is left to wonder why no other explanation other than BSE as the cause of variant CJD is considered"

Nov 27/28 2003 ~ who is benefiting by short-circuiting our attempts to understand and remedy the crisis gripping our family farms and rural communities

Nov 27 2003 ~ New Zealand seeks response management software for animal disease

Nov 27 2003 ~" It is important that animal keepers have confidence that their animals will be treated within an ethical, open and pre-agreed framework"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ The MPs seemed shocked and embarrassed that the contractors had not yet been paid.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~" when family farms are painted as inefficient, then their loss can be swept aside as an unfortunate but necessary effect of progress..."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Experimenting on non-human primates is not only ethically unsupportable, it is scientifically unreliable

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "An alternative explanation is staring them in the face..."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ the increasing take-over of our food-chain globally and nationally by agribusiness

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Ben Bradshaw says "In 2002 - 03 we spent nearly £74 million on the bovine tuberculosis (TB) Five Point Plan.." - but there is to be no second test for the Morris family

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ New Chief Vet

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "...there is a growing belief that detailed investigation is needed into other possible causes, including unexplained transmission from cow to cow or long-term contamination in soil."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "DEFRA has announced £1.6m research project

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "There is no need for additional equipment, the test is performed at room temperature and results are available in less than 3.5 hours."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~" it is quite possible that BSE and variant CJD have emerged as a result of manganese-rich industrial pollution that has only occurred in the last century."

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~" the science went out of the window, as perceived self-interest and political expediency came in"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ The whole of the EU's scrapie eradication programme thus rests on a card-house of unproven hypotheses.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Margaret Beckett "astonished" by Tory claims about "how terrible things are in the countryside"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ 17,000 farm workers gave up last year

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ the Government should be putting some effort into Gamma interferon testing

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Plans to tag every sheep in Europe got the thumbs down this afternoon.

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ "This is actually far worse than Foot and Mouth"

Nov 19 - 26 2003 ~ Owen Paterson has been appointed the new Shadow Minister for Agriculture

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "Factory farms are more dangerous for our lifestyle and democracy than Osama bin Laden and global terrorism"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "The devastating foot and mouth outbreak is only too fresh in our minds...

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Farmers Guardian: "OPs - have your say"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ 12,000 species face extinction

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ total suspension of common sense ...

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Pigs on the trotter

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Britain's richest farmers are set to keep the lion's share of the country's £2bn-a-year farm subsidies ...

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ There is much lip-service in the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy to the word "welfare"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ The European Court of Auditors is believed to be deeply concerned by FMD's spiralling costs and by the controversial contiguous cull policy

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "The control of disease by killing farm animals is promoted unashamedly and no apology made for failing to apply methods in human medicine to the care of farm animals.."

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "There has got to be a better test"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ 100,000 cows go missing from records

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "The common sense in science is being replaced by nonsense,"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "I have never been persuaded that it was right to ban routine vaccination - I believe there was and is a strong case for it."

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~"Kill your cows privately," DEFRA suggests

Nov 11-18 2003 ~ Mrs Beckett hints that parts of the Haskins report may not be implemented for years - if ever.

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~Lord Haskins criticises Defra's functions as "confused" and "overcentralised"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Following the axing of English Nature, Sir David Attenborough says that anything that diminishes an independent voice for wildlife and conservation is to be deplored

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ "complacent and cowardly response is unworthy of the minister and his department"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Haskins recommends clarification of policy so that everyone, including DEFRA personnel, actually understands it

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~" While landowners and farmers are planting trees for the 22nd century, the Government only seems to be sowing seeds for the next election"

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ DEFRA application for warrant withdrawn

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ Pig factories are invading Poland.

Nov 11 - 18 2003 ~ David Curry : DEFRA "has too large a brief, is not succeeding and has to be reformed."

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ It appears that the Animal Health Act was cited to the Morris family as the legal basis for the killing of their cows.

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "Small farms in this country are disappearing at an alarming rate.. "

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Ministers are this weekend trying to back away from abolishing England's official independent wildlife watchdog

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Sir Peter O'Sullevan wants to stop the horse export ban from being lifted

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~Export of horses: Lord Whitty "My Lords, the Government share the concerns that many people have about the welfare of horses..We are reviewing the options..."

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Legal intimidation, use of the Animal "Health" Bill to force slaughter

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ BSE: Mr Lidington asks why Prof Ebringer's research grant was stopped

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ We will all have enough to eat if we stick to the good, old-fashioned craft of farming.

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Ninth case of BSE in Japan

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Bovine Gamma Interferon Test

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Badgers, cattle and the reality of a control and elimination programme for TB

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "A blizzard of crazy regulations is threatening the countryside's future"

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "This International Conference will be based on the valuable experience gained in the control and eradication of foot and mouth disease and other significant animal diseases and zoonoses through the use of vaccination

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "..let the Government publish Lord Haskins' report now, instead of giving secret and selective briefings

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Mrs Beckett favours yet more more centralisation

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Nicola Morris threatened with arrest over TB slaughter resistance

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Scrapie - new compulsory EU measures

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ "unnecessarily onerous and unreasonably draconian.... It has nothing to do with food safety or animal welfare. "

Nov 3 - 10 2003 ~ Mark Purdey is speaking on his research at Penrith Rugby club on Saturday 15th November at I.30 pm.

Oct 19 - 27 2003 ~"... This is how the supermarkets can keep the price down - because other EU countries are awash with milk, produced less efficiently by farmers who receive much more financial help from their governments"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ Heading for Showdown on FMD Clean-up Bills "...we got what we were expecting in that Defra didn't answer the questions we posed"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ The shortcomings of foot and mouth 2001 should not be blamed on the regrettable decline in farm animal vets. Communication is still "poor"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ the "Expert Group" referred to in Section 78 of the Directive: will it include international expertise in foot and mouth disease diagnosis, vaccination and relevant new technologies?

Oct 19 - 27 ~ Commons Rural Affairs Committee raises serious concerns about the declining number of vets specialising in the welfare of farmyard animals.

Oct 19 - 27 ~ Clarification about culling and vaccination is urgently needed

Oct 19 - 27 ~ " The issues surrounding culling and vaccination must be cleared up beyond any doubt before, heaven forbid, we are ever hit again by this dreadful disease."

Oct 19 - 27 ~ EFRA Select Committee urged by RCVS to question claims that the " mathematically justified contiguous cull" brought FMD under control in 2001

Oct 19 - 27 ~ "If the government actually owned up and said that they can't afford to pay now, at least the banks could then arrange to help with companies' cash flow problems."

Oct 19 - 27 ~"Why they are asking all horse and pony owners to apply for horse passports when the required statutory instrument has neither been laid before, nor approved by, Parliament?"

Oct 19 - 27 ~ U.S. Issues New Rules to Protect National Food Supply: meanwhile, DEFRA's dogs are sniffing - but without conviction

Oct 19 - 27 ~"The Commission confirmed that it cannot contribute to the cost of destroying eight million healthy animals under the "pre-emptive cull" scheme, because compensation can only legally be paid for the slaughter of infected animals.. "

Oct 19 - 27 ~"The conclusion I have drawn from analysis of the 2001 FMD epidemic, is that indeed an effective animal disease strategy is dependent on frequent objective review

Oct 13 - 19 ~ ~ EU Compromise over sheep ID plan

Oct 13 - 19 ~"What if they had been questioned on FMD?"

Oct 13 - 19 ~ Fresh Calls for Foot and Mouth Inquiry

Oct 13 -19 ~ Contingency Plans should be made public

Oct 13- 19 ~ Telegraph: "Foot and mouth farce could cost £1 billion"

Oct 13 - 19 ~ EU Commission is considering capping the UK's total final FMD payment "grave concerns about the controversial contiguous cull policy"..."

Oct 13 - 19 ~ ""lasting mistrust" between communities in Cumbria and the government, over the handling of the foot-and-mouth epidemic"

Oct 13 - 19 ~"DEFRA and its Scottish equivalent should remember that if they do not get their houses in order regarding FMD then the EU has taken the power to do it for them."

Oct 13 - 19 ~ "I have never been offered funding by the UK government or anybody from the UK in fact."

Oct 6 - 13 ~"exposure to high intensities of both naturally occurring and man made radioactive metals seems to explain the emergence of every cluster of TSE that has reared its ugly head around the world"

Oct 6 - 13 ~ How GM crop trials were rigged ".. the GM trials, whose results will be reported on Thursday, were always more political than scientific"

Oct 6 - 13 ~ significant "irregularities" in our Government's handling of the crisis

Oct 6 - 13 ~ only £217 million of a possible £948.6 million compensation for FMD losses paid to UK by EU

Oct 6 - 13 ~ FMD simulation exercise in Scotland. Mistakes were made. Lessons must be learned

Oct 6 - 13 ~ No-one will insure GM crops

Oct 6 - 13 ~ "...the Community is also a Community of values, and its policies to combat animal diseases must not be based purely on commercial interests but must also take genuine account of ethical principles."

Oct 6 - 13 ~ The government can no longer claim its hands are tied on GM by the EU.

Oct 6 - 13 ~ And so the wheel keeps grinding..

Oct 6 - 13 ~ Caught Between Science & Society: Researching & Documenting the Impact of FMD

Oct 6 - 13 ~ "...the Dutch do not take to idiotic laws all that easily"

Oct 6 - 13 ~ Einstein would not be ignored today; he would be ground down, like the rest of us in British academia.

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~ according to the FSA's reading of EC hygiene rules, it is perfectly all right for an inexperienced, untrained farmer to kill animals for human consumption, but for a qualified expert to do the job is a criminal offence.

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~ Government using CAP reform to divide and rule? asks CLA

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~"Emergency vaccination is moved to the forefront of control measures instead of being the last resort. The new legislation is a true reform." David Byrne

Sept 30 - Oct 6 ~ Dr David Paton says the world needs quicker FMD vaccines

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Mary Marshall writes today (Saturday): " Thank you for drawing attention to the simulation exercises in Wales and Scotland and to my own comments, but I would like the opportunity to clarify my suggestions:

Sept 21 - 27 ~" full details of the exercise will not be fully revealed in order to determine the effectiveness of the systems which would be put in place in relatively authentic circumstances."

Sept 21-27 ~The new national scrapie plan scheme announced by Defra has been described as "bad news and bad science"

Sept 21 -27 2003 ~ TB outbreak on Anglesey - no badgers, enclosed herd, farm was given the all-clear 11 months ago - more slaughter of breeding stock

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "The arguments against vaccination, based on the assumption that vaccinated animals can become infected without showing signs of the disease, are spurious..."

Sept 21 -27 ~ The 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic in the United Kingdom: animal welfare perspectives

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Sheep at centre of BSE scare

Sept 21 - 27 ~ The FMD question is still going on

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "the banning of Canadian beef might have had a lot more to do with protectionism than health concerns"

Sept 21-27 ~ The chairman of the GM Debate Steering Board, Professor Malcolm Grant, told the BBC the overwhelming response to GM was one of "concern and scepticism".

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Canada, the U.S. and Mexico want an international group overseeing animal health issues.

Sept 21-27 ~ What input will UK stakeholders have into this important dialogue?

Sept 21 - 27 ~ more chemicals are used to grow food in Britain than in any other major industrialised country

Sept 21 -27 2003 ~ TB outbreak on Anglesey - no badgers, enclosed herd, farm was given the all-clear 11 months ago - more slaughter of breeding stock

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "The arguments against vaccination, based on the assumption that vaccinated animals can become infected without showing signs of the disease, are spurious..."

Sept 21 -27 ~ The 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic in the United Kingdom: animal welfare perspectives

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Sheep at centre of BSE scare

Sept 21 - 27 ~ The FMD question is still going on

Sept 21 - 27 ~ "the banning of Canadian beef might have had a lot more to do with protectionism than health concerns"

Sept 21-27 ~ The chairman of the GM Debate Steering Board, Professor Malcolm Grant, told the BBC the overwhelming response to GM was one of "concern and scepticism".

Sept 21 - 27 ~ Canada, the U.S. and Mexico want an international group overseeing animal health issues.

Sept 21-27 ~ What input will UK stakeholders have into this important dialogue?

Sept 21 - 27 ~ more chemicals are used to grow food in Britain than in any other major industrialised country

Sept 21- 27 ~" farmers in the six counties of England's eastern region consume more than a quarter of agricultural subsidies in Britain - more than £540m annually."

Sept 21- 27 ~ The Royal Society's refusal to publish the GM crop trials overview paper likely to "arouse suspicions" about the society's motives.

Sept 21- 27 ~ "Foot-and-mouth ran wild, GM is used ineptly and we can't trust meat."

Sept 21- 27 ~ Sheep tags - "the regulation merely takes a previous version referring to cattle, changing "bovine" to "ovine" throughout"

Sept 21 - 27 ~ The Daily Mail hypes fears of sheep slaughter

Sept 14 - 20 ~ "Alternative views on cause and control have been side-lined."

Sept 14 - 20 ~ "...the biotech industry has turned to a more subtle public relations drive to gain European acceptance of GM."

Sept 14 - 20 ~ the theoretical risk of scrapie obscuring hypothetical BSE....

Sept 14 - 20 ~ live animal test for the detection of TSE

Sept 7 - 13 ~ The government is reviewing contingency plans for a sheep catastrophe, long recognised as a theoretical risk.

Sept 7-13 ~"The agent in question is a genetically modified virus designed to replicate and spread. It is a new, man-made disease"

Sept 7 - 13 ~ Bluetongue is heading north across Europe

Sept 7 - 13 ~ Zimbabwe mass cull of buffalo "futile and bizarre"

Sept 7 - 13 ~ "Defra given carte blanche to kill" - Booker's Notebook

Sept 1 -7 ~ "It is bewildering from a legal point of view that people can have their livelihoods just taken away from them"

Sept 1-7 ~"... their final farcical solution on these poor creatures?"

Sept 1-7 ~ " toxin levels are assessed via an unpleasant technique known as the Mouse Bioassay Test..."

Sept 1 - 7 ~ "There are fears that meat from lambs reared on 300 farms in Wales could be contaminated as some farmers may be illegally dipping their sheep in chemicals normally used on crops. "

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Sept 1 -7 ~ Suspected FMD in Argentina. Immediate measures taken - no pre-emptive slaughter.

Sept 1 - 7 ~ " senior veterinary staff must be in charge"

Sept 1 - 7 ~ in January 1999 the Drummond report had recommended five areas of improvement for the State Veterinary Field Service to improve its state of readiness in the event of an outbreak of disease such as foot and mouth

Sept 1 - 7 ~"rigid and inflexible approach from the centre which caused months of unnecessary anguish."

Sept 1 - 7 ~ The power to panic: the Animal Health Act 2002

Sept 1 - 7 ~ "It is patently clear that GIS and handheld wireless computers are the way we all should be moving...too often there is a game script that is played out whatever the players do or not do."

Sept 1-7 ~ Those of us who went through that first half of 2001, even as at arm's length as a reporter hearing farmers cry, never want to hear or see anything like it again.

Sept 1-7 ~ "Above all, the creation (which is a requirement in the EU FMD Directive) of "a permanently operational Expert Group ... to maintain expertise and assist the relevant authority in qualitative disease preparedness"

Aug 25 - 31 ~ A footnote on the Janet Hughes story

Aug 25 - 31 ~ Carwyn Jones says, " We did what we did in the interests of most farmers" and, of the Lee/Campbell report, " I don't think it has any value for any future control of the disease"

Aug 25 - 31 ~" In sum, stamping out was abandoned in all but name. Mass, almost indiscriminate killing took place."

Aug 25 - 31 ~ Colombian livestock owners are worried by the appearance last Monday of foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks.

Aug 25 - 31 ~"The suppression of scientific dissent is one of the most serious and visible signs of the 'academic-industrial-military complex' at work.."

Aug 19 - 25 ~ EU document states that scrapie is not considered to be transmissible to humans or to pose a risk to man ....

Aug 19-25 ~ "despite the universal scare mongering over the 'hyperinfectious' nature of the prion..."

Aug 19 - 25 ~ "Although there is a need for states to be proactive in protecting their resources, there remain more questions than answers regarding this disease."

Aug 19 -25 ~ Vaccine and Diagnostic Kits for FMD ready for use in Tunisia

Aug 18 - 25 ~"...something is out of balance, that the excessive unnaturalness we force on livestock could be catching up with us"

Aug 18 - 25 ~ Political pressure to find a quick fix is no substitute for proper veterinary research into the causes and transmission of disease.

Aug 15-18 ~ "Similar kits exist, but Saalmüller's version is quicker to use and costs one-fifth the price of its rivals." (Nature Aug 1 2003)

Aug 15-18 ~ "novel, untested policies.. unsupported by expert opinion.. may have serious ethical issues, as well as personal consequences...."

Aug 15-18 " ~ ".. failure of the peer-review process has provided a false veneer of authenticity to the models.."

Aug 15-18 " ~ No Judicial Inquiry has ever been able to probe reasons

Aug 15-18 " ~ The tired old argument about consumer resistance to vaccinated meat is referred to by NFU Wales as a "major question"

August 15-18 " ~ Janet Hughes sees limited light at the end of a long tunnel

Aug 13 ~ Warmwell.com is enjoying a short break

Aug 7 ~ "Special Advisers" to MAFF - with all necessary authority and credentials - were compelling decent public servants to act in a wholly reprehensible manner... "

Aug 4 ~ The NFU and its anti-vaccination line

Aug 1-4 ~ "the campaign to eradicate it by hundreds of Defra inspectors is based on hysterical over-reaction...."

Aug 1-4 ~ "..these results clearly demonstrate the ability of a simple peptide-based assay to discriminate between infected and conventionally FMD-vaccinated animals."

Aug 1-4 ~ Pirbright's FMD review

Aug 1 ~ The Effect of Government Policies on the Communities and Economy of Rural Britain.

Read in full

Aug 1 ~ Defra is ordering the mass burning of affected plants.

July 29 ~ scientific membership should be more inclusive and less exclusive.

July 29 ~ a "quick and organised veterinary response" to any future disease outbreak.

July 29 ~ "government departments do not have sufficient scientific expertise"

July 29 ~ " we neglect the study of animal sources of infection at our peril "

July 29 ~" The cost of moving to better welfare is often assumed to be greater than it is."

July 29 ~ "very real fear of retaliatory action"

July 29 ~ 100% of Canadian Farmers do not want GM wheat to be licensed after their experiences with rape and other GM crops

July 28 ~ New money found for fallen stock scheme - and DEFRA's 50% take-up demand is dropped

July 24 ~" Margaret Beckett's department is not operating efficiently

July 23 ~ The Labour Party will attempt to relaunch its image in the countryside this autumn by staging a one-day rural summit - in London.

July 23 ~ Spiralling debts and plummeting membership has forced the NFU to close their London HQ and sell off property (including Ben Gill's presidential style flat in Covent Garden.)

July 20/21 ~ "Dark actors playing games"

July 19/20 ~ Pressure to break up DEFRA intensifies

July 19/20 ~ "bad practice at a pig farm" led to the foot and mouth crisis says Ben Bradshaw.

July 18 ~The government's eight-week national dialogue on genetically modified organisms draws to a close today amid widespread criticism of the way it was organised.

July 17/18 ~ 70 per cent of fallen stock is taken, free, by hunts, but with a ban on hunting looming that option would no longer be available to farmers.

July 17/18 ~ The levels of bureaucracy are absolutely ludicrous, and very expensive

July 17 ~ " Is Lord Whitty aware that "SAT 2 is of concern because as a serotype it has a reputation for being highly contagious and antigenically diverse"

July 17 ~ The harder things get the more our noses are to the grindstone trying to survive.

July 16/17 ~ ".. we have had to live with all these rubbish regulations which have done nothing to improve profits, and all our exports have been driven away because of mis-handling by our Government."

July 16/17 ~ Ministers will press ahead with plans for a compulsory levy on farmers to help pay for any outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease

July 16 ~ Consider this: "We would then, provided the vaccine was appropriate to the strain, consider as a first priority the use of preventive vaccination"

July 15/16 ~ Plans for sheep cull under a scrapie plan that has become mandatory

July 16 ~ Sixteen new initiatives have been unveiled today as part of an outline AnimalHealth and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain.

May 22 ~ EU Parliament votes for stricter GM labelling

May 21 ~ "The circumstantial evidence is compelling, but it has not been proven scientifically..."

May 21 ~ BSE Madness - One dead Canadian cow causes mayhem. The US immediately bans all Canadian cattle, sheep and goats, meat and other products. Tyson and McDonalds shares plummet...

May 21 ~ The stock-response belief that BSE kills people is still widespread;

May 20 ~"... knowledge commodified and subject to market forces"

May 20 ~ Ethical or moral reasons do not count. It is impossible under EU rules for Britain to stop GM crops being grown commercially....

May 18 ~ Britain's most expensive myth

May 17 ~ The EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health has given North Rhine-Westphalia permission to vaccinate zoo birds.

May 16/17 ~ Stop the slaughter "The issue of whether or not vaccinations should be carried out after an outbreak so as to avoid a mass cull of birds is a moral one"

May 16 ~ Avian influenza

May 16 ~ "The authorities put the interests of a small group of exporters before the interests of hundreds of thousands of animal lovers."

May 16 ~ These fine compassionate words from the 1954 Protection of Birds Act...

May 16 ~ "The curious conviction that animals are without feelings has gone largely unchallenged to this day"

May 15 ~ These recent Parliamentary Questions and Answers into Foot and Mouth show