2001 foot and mouth outbreak

[matthew]

I have been told by vets that Tb could possibly get into domestic pets then into households. Have you heard this?

Yes. Here are just few stories.

https://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2014/03/cats-to-human-transmission-of-zoonotic.html

https://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2009/11/our-terrier-becomes-official.html

https://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2013/12/one-small-step-for-george.html

IIRC TBis one of the biggest killers of humans globally.

It is, and not always m.tuberculosis. Cases of m.bovis are on the increase.

What does naive suckler mean?

No resistance to the bacteria they are faced with.

 

[Raider112]

I think you'll find it was a knee jerk reaction to the 'wrong brain' scandal, when DEFRA 'discovered' that almost the entire UK sheepflock was infected with BSE!!!!


Happily, before they started the operation to kill the whole lot, some poor lab tech admitted that he'd been muddling the 'control' in the tests to see how many sheep had a BSE type pox.
As I recall it, the control samples were brain tissue from BSE cows, which at the time were highly likely to have,,,surprise surprise, BSE.
His error had suggested that the sheep samples had the BSE.

in fact, they couldn't get BSE to infect sheep for love or money. The only way was to inject the poor things with it.

Scrapie has seemingly never jumped species, and the whole scrapie nonsense was - in my opinion- a monstrous waste of time.

If I remember rightly it was because they didn't know the difference between Bovine and Ovine.

 

[matthew]

If I remember rightly it was because they didn't know the difference between Bovine and Ovine.

And this surprises us? It shouldn't.

 

[egbert]

If I remember rightly it was because they didn't know the difference between Bovine and Ovine.

I thought it was a simple procedural foul up, swapping one for t'other.

 

[Rowland]

I agree with all the dismal stories and memories of F&M but the other side of the coin is it actually made some . I know of at least 2 who were very close to the wall and both were taken out by being a 'contact' . Both had huge payouts and raked in the money 'cleansing' their farm . Meanwhile both were able to get going again and now very successful. At the same time others of us were struggling on,selling fat hoggs for £30 and less and trying to lamb down ewes in mud because we couldn't get a licence to move them . We also had 270 tack sheep down that we couldn't get rid of.
I also recall all sorts of stories about how various farmers 'worked ' the system to keep going. Noticeably one who was desperate to move 4 tups back home from being on keep. He was so worried about being stopped towing a stock box he put them in an old caravan with the curtains drawn. All was well till he had a burst tyre !

Bit late to reply to this thread but like you i farmed right next door to infected farmers and every day for weeks expected a visit to say “ right we are going to take you out “ we were down wind of some of the 1st infected farms. Smoke blowed over us from the fires!
I understand that being taken out was Horrific but not was like a ticking time bomb which never went off .
We never did get taken out but had to listen to tales of people hiring there own machinery to themselves for clean up for eye watering prices,meanwhile while we were on a standstill not able to buy or sell stock this was on as others had said just about recovered from BSE .
We had 300-350 mule ewes to Suffolk and Texals and about 200 fatting cattle bought from Tow law Hexham and Carlise all decent sorts sold back through Darlington.
On a rented farm it was probably one of the biggest kicks in the teeth we ever had. My farther never really got over it. My brother had problems with it too which left me to get on and lamb sheep top dress crops drill spring corn deal with ministry of Agricultural on my own.
I once said to friends it probably would have been better to catch it than not !
One kept quiet as he’d made a few quid out of cleaning his farm, the other gave me grief as he had on some farms but not others.

He did go on to say how all of his stock didn’t catch it because as time went on his bio sercurity wasn’t very good.

The whole episode left a very bitter taste.

There’s tales of people who managed to make very good money out of it , which are true.
It definitely damaged me and my family we never got a fresh start just ground down having to accept what we were given.
Edit which was f all

Edit
I wish I hadn’t now replied to this thread as it’s brought back some very unpleasant memories.

 

[Raider112]

I thought it was a simple procedural foul up, swapping one for t'other.

You could be right or maybe a bit of both but the bovine / ovine bit rings a bell from somewhere.

 

[primmiemoo]

It rankles still that free assistance went only to those whose stock were taken out. There were plenty who should have had that quantity and quality of support because businesses were badly damaged, and, let's face it, at human level (as important , if not more important than business) nerves were very frayed - being on the edges for the whole time.

Local Authorities sent out letters to farmers on their patches indicating assistance was there for the asking, but the small print showed them up as a lazy send to all.
They could even have been hassled by the tourist trade to deny the actuality at a wider level after the all clear. So called Tourist Chiefs came across as passive-aggressive Humpty, and Tweedles types, stamping their feet like overindulged toddlers during the outbreaks. Were they given lollypops as mollification?

 

[Rowland]

It rankles still that free assistance went only to those whose stock were taken out. There were plenty who should have had that quantity and quality of support because businesses were badly damaged, and, let's face it, at human level (as important , if not more important than business) nerves were very frayed - being on the edges for the whole time.

Local Authorities sent out letters to farmers on their patches indicating assistance was there for the asking, but the small print showed them up as a lazy send to all.
They could even have been hassled by the tourist trade to deny the actuality at a wider level after the all clear. So called Tourist Chiefs came across as passive-aggressive Humpty, and Tweedles types, stamping their feet like overindulged toddlers during the outbreaks. Were they given lollypops as mollification?

Local business could ask for help! One local pub took advantage of a VAT break, to be honest he wasn’t affected by the out break. The vat built up on him and the daft t@wt never paid it and ended up doing 2 weeks nick . Some help that was .

 

[primmiemoo]

Local business could ask for help! One local pub took advantage of a VAT break, to be honest he wasn’t affected by the out break. The vat built up on him and the daft t@wt never paid it and ended up doing 2 weeks nick . Some help that was .

There was something in the small print that precluded farmers from those breaks and exemptions at the time. I don't feel inclined to open the files just yet, though.

 

[Rowland]

There was something in the small print that precluded farmers from those breaks and exemptions at the time. I don't feel inclined to open the files just yet, though.

Most Agricultural businesses reclaim vat rather than have to pay it so it wasn’t really any sort of benefit for farmers.
I didn’t really have time for looking into things or the motivation I was on auto pilot just trying to get work done. It was a decent spring if memory serves me right so you could crack on . I remember they saying if your crops came from a F&M affected area you wouldn’t be able to sell them thankfully that didn’t come ture but it was just one of many stresses that you could have done with out .

 

[matthew]

Anyone remember Cogent’s stud?
Didn’t the Duke of W. Completely cover it down for months, with staff inside, to protect the genetics ?
Then there was the story of .Guy Tomas -Everard, as told in the Private .Eye compilation. He postponed his wedding, locked the gates to the .Exmoor farm and told the Ministry to go forth, unless they could prove his 1000 head of cattle had FMD.

I know of one farm which at one time had four D notices on it, Their cattle survived.
It really was a grim time.

 

[FarmingLim]

Dunno if it’s been mentioned through this, but I’m wondering if DEFRA are nipping a bit with all this meat coming in from Poland who aren’t far off Russia, you’ve got to love the free market and our ability to trade freely.

 

[FarmingLim]

Dunno if it’s been mentioned through this, but I’m wondering if DEFRA are nipping a bit with all this meat coming in from Poland who aren’t far off Russia, you’ve got to love the free market and our ability to trade freely.

Apologies we should be nipping as well.

 

[matthew]

Dunno if it’s been mentioned through this, but I’m wondering if DEFRA are nipping a bit with all this meat coming in from Poland who aren’t far off Russia, you’ve got to love the free market and our ability to trade freely.

The only news about those abattoirs in NE Poland is on FB and the BBC. Nothing in the Polish media. (Daughter lives in the area. I have asked)
With no border checks for imported foodstuffs, to keep the supermarket shelves full, we are likely to be a dumping ground for any old carp.

 

[Werzle]

The only news about those abattoirs in NE Poland is on FB and the BBC. Nothing in the Polish media. (Daughter lives in the area. I have asked)
With no border checks for imported foodstuffs, to keep the supermarket shelves full, we are likely to be a dumping ground for any old carp.

Its maddening, which uk firms are buying the meat and where is it being sold? Its no wonder a lid is kept on the price of our home grown beef when this cheap shite is being imported.

 

[ollie989898]

IIRC TBis one of the biggest killers of humans globally.

Neither strain is good news, it is nasty. There is a school of thought that all farm kids should be given BCG since they are logically at a potentially high risk of exposure.

 

[borderterribles]

Neither strain is good news, it is nasty. There is a school of thought that all farm kids should be given BCG since they are logically at a potentially high risk of exposure.

Well I doubt that many farm kids live where they will routinely get the BCG vaccine. Only given in inner city areas now. When we went down with T.b the first time, we realised that our younger children hadn't had the test and then been vaccinated at School, so we paid for them to have both via our Doctor.

 

[multi power]

Interestingly when I was born in 77 all farm kids were being offered some kind of tb vaccine, not sure of the details except that I had it before even getting home from the hospital, I had tried to get the same for my kids when they were born but had no success

 

[matthew]

Interestingly when I was born in 77 all farm kids were being offered some kind of tb vaccine, not sure of the details except that I had it before even getting home from the hospital, I had tried to get the same for my kids when they were born but had no success

After the eradication process of TB in cattle during the 1950s and 60s, all school children were given the screening Mantoux test. This is the human equivalent of the skin test, and was ( as many now think) used to check that the eradication of TB in our cattle had been successful. It was.

BCG is only offered now to inner city kids where m.tuberculosis is seen as a problem.

In fact even if badgers are playing, peeing and shi££ing in the kid’s sandpit, and the farm has lost all its cattle, it took a prayer and not a little anger to get the children concerned even screened.

Public Health hasn’t caught up with the environmental contamination that our cattle are sentinels of, and BCG is only mildly effective in neo natal babies.

 

[bovrill]

Last night I couldn't remember the market, but yes, it was Hexham in mid January. The Waughs also shared swill feed and the vehicles carrying it with Jimmy Brown (?) who farmed near them and whose pigs were slaughtered out as contiguous. All those pigs tested negative.

More here: http://www.warmwell.com/footmoutheye.html

This wasn't the first time gov.uk officials have looked this industry in the eye and lied. and it hasn't been the last..

Thanks for that, it's taken me until now to get through it, but a very interesting read.

I got quite involved with it all, from telling MAFF to help themselves to any straw they needed from my outlying stacks of straw when it was first found at Cheales, to helping build the rest of the pyres in Essex, then spending 3 weeks based at Colchester barracks with the Royal Engineers in the lead up to the army getting involved, then heading down to Worcester to help catch up with a 3 week backlog of dead animals, and 40 useless gangs of contractors who were meant to be picking them up.