Foot and Mouth in the UK

[Smithy]

Defra Confirms New Foot-And-Mouth Case
SURREY - Initial laboratory tests on the samples taken this morning from the cattle on the holding in Surrey where disease was suspected have indicated the presence of Foot and Mouth Disease.


The last outbreak occurred in August
On the basis of these initial laboratory results and clinical symptoms UK Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds has confirmed Foot and Mouth Disease. The farm comprises a number of separate parcels of land and a single protection zone will be put in place which extends a three kilometres radius from each of them, and a surveillance zone of 10 kilometres radius beyond that. Footpaths will be closed in the protection zone.

A movement ban of cattle, sheep, pigs and other ruminants has now been imposed in England and parallel arrangements are being made by the Scottish and Welsh administrations. No movements of susceptible animals are allowed except under licence. The licence conditions may vary between England, Scotland and Wales.

Debby Reynolds said:

“At this stage we have not identified the strain or origin of this outbreak. The situation remains uncertain, and I urge all animal keepers to be vigilant for signs of disease, practice stringent biosecurity measures, including the movement ban and licensing conditions.”

All animals currently in transit should continue to their destination where they should remain in place.

The European Commission has been informed.

This morning a temporary control zone has been put around a grazing area in Surrey. The cattle are to be culled on suspicion of the disease while laboratory test results are awaited.

This measure follows an assessment of clinical symptoms by Animal Health veterinary staff.

Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds said:

“The containment and eradication of Foot and Mouth Disease is our top priority. This is why we have moved swiftly to put in place a temporary control zone while we investigate this development. At this stage disease has not been confirmed, laboratory results will follow.

“In the meantime, and as always in such circumstances, I reiterate my message to animal keepers to practice the highest standards of biosecurity, remain vigilant for disease and report any suspicions quickly.”

TheCattleSite News Desk

[grassfarmer]

I hope this is being taken seriously in Canada - the risk of bio-terrorism using agents like FMD are truly frightening. I know Canada has a plan in place for regionalising the country in event of a disease breakout of this type but what is the policy on vaccinating? Could somebody enlighten me?

This is a real disaster now in the UK as the August-November period is when the majority of the year's marketings get done. Things had only just started to move to auction, slaughter etc again after the August 2nd outbreak. Now there is again a complete ban on movement, livestock sales etc until this outbreak is contained. Combine this with the instant ban on all meat exports and you have a recipe for disaster.
The sheep market will be worst hit as the bulk of the lamb crop is exported - if this trade is shut down for 2-3 months the lambs will be worth very little. Rather like when the US border closed to Canadian beef in 2003. Lambs on grass don't store real well either, when they are fat they need to be gone. On top of this are the every day problems - imagine if the fall run was canceled in Canada, no sales, no movements - not even to wean and return calves from community pastures, they have all to stay where they are until the outbreak is over. If your grass runs out tough luck, deal with it.
In the 2001 outbreak in the UK the guys that lost their animals to the cull were well compensated but the ones who lived with all the cost and inconvenience of movement bans etc lost out. This time around it looks like virtually all producers will be hit with the extra costs with few being compensated. All the more galling that the British Government announced last week that the investigation into the cause of the August outbreak (and likely this one also)could not prove conclusively whether the source of the outbreak was a Government facility or Merial with whom they share the facility. How convenient - rather like the BSE fiasco, as long as no-one (ie the government)is identified as the cause they cannot be sued.

[smcgrath76]

Canada's official position is that it does not support vaccination. The problem with vaccination is that it creates a titre of the FMD antibody in the blood and any corresponding test for FMD will turn up positive. This makes it difficult to determine whether you have the disease or an animal has been vaccinated.
The official position is FMD free. In the event of a major catastrophe, the country would be zoned into two parts (split around Thunder Bay) and vaccination might become a possibility. Hopefully it would never get that far along.

[grassfarmer]

I increasingly wonder if this policy on vaccination is correct. It is the stance taken by the UK authorities and supported by most UK farmers. Foot and mouth is a disease of animals, it has no health implications for humans and can be prevented by vaccination. Really how different is it from some of the other things we vaccinate for? A Dutch friend says they started vaccinating back in the 50's and can't understand why other countries wouldn't do the same. It looks a rather tamer solution than roasting close to 10 million animals as happened in 2001 in the UK. I hope we never see it in Canada again but if we do would we be prepared to incinerate everything in feedlot alley rather than vaccinate?

[smcgrath76]

I don't disagree with that. I think we will certainly wait until NA has had a major occurence before that happens though.

[cakadu]

Just a point of clarification - if we wait to vaccinate until it's here, won't it be too late? Don't vaccinations take some time to take effect?

Lambs definitely have a short time frame as anything over 12 months (or in some cases the first permanent teeth) is not considered lamb anymore. The lamb industry in Canada is pretty much dependant on exports and it still hasn't fully recovered from the whole BSE mess. Factor in the high dollar and exports aren't going so well right now either. I've even heard that it is cheaper for the lamb buyers/processors to buy lambs from the US than domestic lambs. If this is indeed true, then we really are going to continue to hurt.

As far as vaccinating and titers go, isn't there a way to read them to tell if it is coming from a vaccination versus being the actual disease?

[grassfarmer]

No, vaccinations can be used in the case of outbreaks and I think act fairly quickly. Point is I would like to think vaccination would be considered in Canada. They say that the titers cannot be clearly read on FMD - vaccinated or infected but I don't know if that is really true.

These government vets in the UK just make me mad. In the first case in August the infected herd had to be gathered into a makeshift corral out in the pasture for slaughter. There were media helicopters covering the event and filmed the herd being trailed through a stream on their way to this corral!! Given that FMD causes lesions on the feet that spread the disease how could they be so stupid or incompetent as to trail the cattle through a stream that ran onto neighbouring farms?

[grassfarmer]

Scottish NFU is now negotiating a deal with Government to establish a "voluntary welfare cull" to get lambs off the hills. These lambs desperately need to move and with movements at a standstill and export markets closed they have nowhere to go. So the Government will compensate producers and the animals will be destroyed. Expected uptake may be 1/2 a million lambs. This is several hundred miles from the FMD outbreak. Madness. Still no-one thinks vaccinating in the area of the outbreak is a better solution?