Foot and Mouth !!

[blue]

any news on ya gear Mat?

[Buzz]

All looking ok at the moment the kit is still there as Anna's parents have been down this weekend. They think that the virus escaped from a research lab near fox corner in pirbright Have to wait and see if there are any other cases before we take action. Hopefully they have it contained.

[Andy Collins]

Isnt Pirbright the research lab that had some serious biological warfare experiments running in the 50's and 60's. All top secret of course until some nasties escaped, naturally the govt denied everything at the time. Think it was anthrax related at that time.

[MattyF]

I surely hope you would be compansated if you could not work any way.......there was billions of pounds in comp paid out last time.

The dude who my dad brought his small holding off managed to renovate his house of it.........but then he also lost all his sheep generations of hard work had a mental break down and smashed down all the stock sheads and his family where basically kept hostage on there farm for months....fu(kin sickening if this was let out by acident..but then i dont think it was no acident last time.....just another way to bring farming to its knees and turn the countryside in to a big adventure play ground and the banks and goverment to get there hands on more land...

[Quickthorn]

Only farmers got compensated for loss of stock. Those people whose non farming businesses ground to a halt got nothing. If Matt's stuff was trapped in the protection zone, he wouldn't get a penny for any lost work.

 

Last time, it was organised chaos, thanks to MAFF and the farming lobby. They could have vaccinated against a lot of it, but the farming lobby didn't want that, because the UK would lose "free from F&M without vaccination" status, which would mean a fall in stock prices. The alternative, culling and incineration in the way they chose, turned out to be a great way of spreading the disease, as the fires were never hot enough to kill the organisms, which drifted west on the prevailing winds..just like in the 60's, during the first outbreak.

 

Hopefully it won't come to that this time. If they don't contain it, they'll probably break out the vaccines, because EU trading rules have been changed so that vaccinated meat doesn't suffer the same financial penalty it did 6 years ago.

[Buzz]

Spoke to the farmer today we are in the internal protection area but there are no restrictions yet ! DEFRA are coming out tomorrow to check the stock.

 

FM takes 3 - 8 days to show so we won't know till tuesday earliest anyways.

 

My personal thinking is this is either an escape, apparently the firm stopped making the vaccine last week for no apparent reason as yet. Or bio-terrorism somebody has sold it on.

 

Either way next week should be fun !

[Steve Bullman]

things look to be kicking off again in surrey, this affecting you matt?

[Buzz]

Not as yet, there is a farm in Ripley which is being culled that is 6 miles from my yard. No straw mat down at my place as yet. They lifted the restrictions way way to quick IMO.

 

Bio terrorism is my bet !

[MattyF]

im quite paranoid about such ways the govermrnt treats the farming comunity in this country but its all seeming a bit strange that both out breaks have bee at important times of year that farmers are selling pigs to market and ewes for breeding stock, it will make and break a lot of people.....

[Lee Winger]

Have you been vaccinated Matt?