UNITED KINGDOM.
FOOT & MOUTH BREAKTHROUGH.
Scientists in the United Kingdom, have found a way for the rapid identification livestock at risk of infection with foot-and-mouth from the air they breath.
The research was developed on the information collected during the 1967 outbreak in England, that caused the ban on Argentine beef imports on the bone.The results of the work were published last year.
The idea is to control the virus that is carried air-born, as opposed to just the treatment of vehicles and people by disinfecting.This comes after research in Australia, that was pioneered at the University of Queensland, that can distinguish between animals that have been vaccinated and those that have not.
The pioneering technology from Australia, would appear to be far more, practical than that of the UK. One has to remember, that carrion birds, foxes and rodents play no small part in spreading the disease.
Vaccination is also a sure fire way of preventing the dreaded disease, which is akin to vaccinating children for polio or small pox. FMD can only be contracted by cloven footed animals, cats dogs and horses as well as humans are immune.
Hong Kong get FMD every September in the pig herds of the Island, the meat goes strait into the food chain, with no adverse effect.
Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the whole FMD problem, maybe spend more time on TB eradication, a disease that can be transferred to humans, with devastating effect.
At times the industry is so busy, chasing the mice, it misses the elephants, according to old timers in the industry.
