FMD hits another herd – Calls for vaccination

Bad news from Surry, where another suspected case of foot and mouth disease in cattle has led to immediate death of a herd.

BBC news reported yesterday

 

Fresh cull in foot-and-mouth zone

Protection zones surround the affected sites

A fresh case of foot-and-mouth disease is suspected in Surrey, the chief veterinary officer has confirmed. Cattle, within the 3km protection zone set up around the farm where the first outbreak occurred, are being culled as a precaution.

But in a repeat of the controversy surrounding UK government action during the devastating 2001 outbreak, there are already calls for a programme of vaccination to be implemented as an alternative to shooting out livestock.

Johnathan Miller:

Vaccinate now

The situation is the perfect scenario for vaccination. The specific virus is known. There is currently just one cluster of disease hence a ring vaccination scheme can be implemented with high confidence.

Warmwell:

August 6/7 2007 ~ Not good news. Clinical signs found in another herd.
NOW will you vaccinate?
Another herd has been identified with clinical signs within the larger protection zone. Debby Reynolds has ordered that the herd be culled as soon as practicable. As an emailer comments , if as many as 39 of the Woolford cattle really tested positive for disease “it may be that this has rumbled around longer than a week or so. That is not good news, if this small farm is not the index case.”
This is the very moment that emergency ring vaccination of all susceptible animals starting from the outside of the surveillance zone should begin. The 67 strain, now designated FMDV-O1 BFS 1860/UK/67, was particularly prone to air-borne spread and could even still be air-borne. (Rounding up the now possibly infected roe deer that roam freely in the Protection Zone and killing them all in a pen would not prove easy, either. Vaccination is now urgent and essential.)

Test results to establish whether any of the slaughtered cows at the second farm were indeed infected with foot-and-mouth disease are being awaited by anxious farmers. The results are due out today, Tuesday 7th August.

Worryingly for the rural tourist industry, Britain’s Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, responding to concerned farmers said the issue of footpath closures would be investigated immediately.