HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE  H01031  3/22/01   "LIVESTOCK DISEASE IN HARDY COUNTRY"
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From: "Patrick Roper" <patrick@prassociates.co.uk>
Subject: Hardy and foot & mouth
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 12:20:42 -0000

This article "The siege of Shaftesbury: The heart of Hardy's Wessex
has been spared the worst but locals' woes run deep."
by Raymond Whitaker writing in The Independent on 18 March may be of
interest:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2001-03/siege180301.
shtml

(Remember to join up the URL if it was broken in two pieces on your
e-mail)

If anyone outside Britain but planning a visit here wants any
information on the current situation via a vis foot & mouth disease
and countryside restrictions, I will do my best to help.

Patrick Roper

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Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 10:43:30 -0500
From: Rosemarie Morgan <rosemarie.morgan@yale.edu>
Subject: Re: Hardy and foot & mouth


Thank you for this, Patrick! One source of information on Foot-and-Mouth in
Britain claims that recent EEC regulations have exacerbated the problem;
that whereas, in the past, farmers took their cattle to the local abattoir
for slaughter now, in many cases, they have to take their stock on long and
arduous journeys to reach the "EEC regulated" abattoirs. This, it is said,
has caused the spread of what would have been a local epidemic to become
first a regional and now a national disaster!

   The question then arises--will the EEC step in with aid?

   I guess Sgt. Troy's "footrot" (ex. FFMC MS) has nothing on this!

   Best,
   Rosemarie

PS Yesterday they were slaughtering sheep in Vermont: mad cow disease!

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From: "Patrick Roper" <patrick@prassociates.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Hardy and foot & mouth
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 17:24:35 -0000


An interesting aspect the current plague is that much is emerging that
has been well hidden, or simply ignored.  You are right about
abattoirs but one thing that seems to have happened is that
supermarkets have invested in their own abattoirs on a "why give
profit to someone else" basis and then insist that beasts are
transported to them.  What they save by slaughtering and processing in
one place must more than compensate for transport costs.  When
challenged on the grounds of this not being very humane they say they
are obliged in law to maximise profit for their shareholders and could
not, therefore, take the beasts to nearer abattoirs even if they
wanted to.

>    The question then arises--will the EEC step in with aid?

With outbreaks now confirmed in Holland and Ireland one wonders where
the money would come from.  At present the countryside here is going
into a downward spiral.

>    I guess Sgt. Troy's "footrot" (ex. FFMC MS) has nothing on this!

No, I don't think so.  Sheep always seem to be prone to footrot and I
had to deal with animals so afflicted when I was a lad on the farm (I
won't go into details).

Patrick Roper

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