OFF: Re: Foot & Mouth

[Eric Siegerman]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2001 at 08:42:41AM +0000, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote:
> OK. So like with a bad case of flu, first the cow gets sick, then the
> cow gets better.

Not quite.  From a Canadian Government page on the disease
(http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/osh/fam_e.html):
> All affected animals become weakened and debilitated, and
> secondary bacterial infections can occur. The most serious
> effects of the disease, however, are seen in dairy cattle. Loss
> of milk yield, abortion, sterility, chronic mastitis and
> chronic lameness occur.

Carl:
> Everyone is being led along by the nose (or foot, or mouth ;)
> without ever asking why.

Well, other governments too take it pretty seriously:
  - Last fall (ie. before the current outbreak began), there was
    a joint Canadian/American/Mexican Foot and Mouth fire drill:
            http://www.cfia-acia.agr.ca/english/anima/heasan/simulation/commu_e.shtml

  - Just about every gov't web site I hit last night while trying
    to learn something has a "Foot and Mouth" link on its home
    page; no need to go digging.  (Little useful info, as you
    say, but the fact that *so* many feature it *so* prominently
    indicates something.)

  - The University of Guelph is known for its agricultural
    programs.  Do a search on "foot and mouth" from their home
    page (www.uoguelph.ca), to see how other recent outbreaks
    have been handled.

So, while the reaction may be excessive (I'm not really competent
to judge), there's evidence that it's not a case of the British
Government's being, all alone in the world, completely over the
top.

Here's something I found on the UoG site (it's a digest; look for
the "Ancient Killer" article):
        http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/animalnet/2000/4-2000/an-04-06-00-01.txt
This makes the symptoms sound worse, and the disease more
dangerous, than does anything else I've read, but makes airborne
spread sound less likely than news reports and other sources do.
Go figure.

It also says:
> the meat is of such a poor condition that it would never find
> its way to market.

Between that, milk degradation, and sterility, one can see why
farmers are scared of it, why countries don't want to import it
-- and why that's bad for countries which lose their disease-free
status.

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics at telepres.com
|  |  /
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
necessarily a good idea.
        - RFC 1925 (quoting an unnamed source)