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Foot and Mouth disease

(Communications received from Dr Roger Breeze can be seen here.)

September 3rd 2010 ~ Japanese FMD suspected cows test negative

Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, we learn that according to the Miyazaki Prefecture website, the Japanese MAFF announced that 5 samples taken from 5 beef cattle in Ebino City, Miyazaki including one FMD-suspected animal, were all found to be negative.

September 2nd 2010 ~Why in 2010 - in Japan of all places - is anyone looking at a reported case of suspect FMD without the tools to make a diagnosis?

Back in June, in a longer email about the Japanese FMD situation, Dr Breeze, (who has no financial interest in any of these diagnostic kits), made the following points:
• "An on-farm PCR test for FMD on April 9 (using the $50 Tetracore FMD real time PCR test, http://www.tetracore.com) on a $50,000 IdahoTechnology RAPID PCR machine (www.idahotechnology.com) would have given the answer within an hour....a preclinical test that detects FMD-infected animals 2 to 3 days before they show clinical signs of disease a pooled sample from several animals could have been used. The best science could have given the answer in one hour: in fact it took 11 days.
  
• And to confirm that infection, why does Japan not have the Tessarae resequencing microarray at the NIAH so that within 5 hours ALL the pathogens in the sample can be identified... ? A PCR-positive sample taken on April 9 could have been identified by microarray the same day along with actual sequence information - in fact it was 14 days later before the official confirmation.
  How is it that on 19 April the local government veterinary service tests by PCR for all the diseases except the one that matters - FMD?....For the want of a $50 PCR test kit in the right place Japan is paying dearly.
  
• Why is the source of an FMD outbreak or infection always "unknown or inconclusive"? Why are we not applying modern microbial forensic tools to trace the virus to its source outside Japan by its biological signature (Carrillo, C. and Rock, D. Molecular epidemiology and forensics of RNA viruses, in Microbial Forensics, Editors Breeze, R.G., Budowle, B. and Schutzer, S. E., Elsevier, 2005, 174-185)? ..."
Read in full

September 2nd 2010 ~ A new FMD case? How long will it take for Miyazaki to know if it really has a new case of foot and mouth?

The misery of the FMD outbreak continues. As we have said (see FMD page) the unfortunate farmers of Miyazaki were unable to make use of the staet of the art technology which would have made their foot and mouth crisis far less of a destructive drama. First, the central government was apparently ignorant of the exisgtence of the high-speed on-site diagnostic kits that can give results within the hour. Second, although it was known that vaccination works efficiently to stop the virus in its tracks so that uninfected animals do not catch the disease and virus shed frpom those that already have is very drastically reduced, vaccination was brought in only far too late and then only as a pre-slaughter measure.
Today we learn that Japan has discovered what it thinks is another suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease in a cow in its southern prefecture of Miyazaki - this just days after it lifted a state of emergency. (See www.straitstimes.com )
In early June, the European Livestock Association wrote a careful letter to the Japanese authorities, begging them not to repeat the mistakes made by the UK and the Netherlands in 2001. Extract: ".... Vaccination to live should replace stamping out/vaccination to slaughter, in combination with:
• tracing the disease as fast as possible by using newer diagnostic tests with which one can quickly confirm infection, even in the prodromal/preclinical phase, giving almost immediate ensurance;
• immediate slaughter of animals on infected premises;
• utilising ring vaccintion...Read in full.

August 27th 2010 ~ "Miyazaki Declares End of Foot-and-Mouth Epidemic" says the headline - but why did Japan decline help from the FAO and what lessons will be learned?

The English version of Japan's 'Jiji Press" reports today that "The focus will now shift to a research into where the disease came from and how it spread .." It seems strange that on May 21 (2010 SeeWikipedia report) the Japanese government declined an offer by the FAO to send Miyazaki prefecture a specialist team to help contain the virus. Two days later it refused to accept FMD specialists from the FAO who offered to investigate the route of FMD.
In spite of assertions in the Japanese press that the epidemic is at an end, ProMed today comments that "Japan is still to declare the outbreak as resolved." and "An official final report of this significant event, with lessons to be drawn, is anticipated. "
The Japanese Ministry during the Miyazaki outbreak does seem to have been oddly complacent. Agriculture Minister Akamatsu showed little apparent desire to be actively involved, travelling overseas as the crisis deepened. Vaccination was used merely as a pre-slaughter measure, farmers were not consulted - and as ProMed commented at the time, vaccination-to-kill posed "...among other things, biosecurity problems, since the vaccinators could have unknowingly transmitted the virus to other visited holdings..." The same moderator (AS) reminded ProMed readers in mid May that:
"One of the key messages of a recently drafted EU policy paper was: "Vaccination and testing should replace unnecessary culling"; see SANCO/7070/2010, May 2010 Policy paper "Vaccine and/or diagnostic banks for major animal diseases: strategic planning options for emergency situations or major crises" (Available here)

August 17th 2010 ~ Why is such "heavy lifting" needed to get rapid test technology into suspected premises - and into the Contingency Plan?

Suitcase sized systems for detecting foot and mouth disease have been effective and available since 2001. They have not yet been used in the UK. Indeed, the obstacles placed in the path of getting them into the Contingency Plan seem wholly out of proportion to their usefulness.
The UK-based company, Stratophase (thanks to the FMD news service for this link) is hoping to create something "smaller, more robust and easier to use" than the UK's current system that:
"...sends a sample to a lab but the time associated with this can have a massive impact. We hope to produce a system the size of a briefcase that can detect whether there is foot-and-mouth present in real time."
(Stratophase has no current plans for turning their own optical technology into products, speaking of the "heavy lifting" needed to get the product to the consumer.)

August 17th 2010 ~ Successful detection kits are manufactured and are already in use elsewhere for rapid lightweight and on-site diagnosis - Why are we not using them?

Technology that could have saved priceless breeding stock, farmers' livelihoods and a great deal of misery in the last two UK outbreaks in 2001 and 2007 - and in Japan this year - continues to be ignored. The reasons are unfathomable. See for example the very positive conclusions of "Real-Time Reverse Transcription PCR Detection of Foot-and-Mouth-Disease Virus Using the R.A.P.I.D. System" (pdf) (The RAPID "suitcase" can be used by field personnel with minimal training.)
The UK based Smiths Detection also has a portable, briefcase sized device for on-farm detection of foot and mouth disease . Their Bioseeq^TM gets a result from the sample in about 90 minutes on farm - yet although the study Diagnosis of FMD by RT-PCR: prospects for mobile and portable assays (pdf) funded by DEFRA concluded that such instruments
"provide realistic options for performing molecular assays for FMDV away from centralized laboratories"
the study then went on to say:
"validation of these and other mobile and portable instruments is required before RT-PCR methodology can reliably be used in the field or closer to suspect premises for FMD outbreak diagnosis and control."
Can anyone explain why "validation" takes so long when what needs to be validated has already been so successfully tried and tested in such studies?

13th August 2010 ~ Mongolia's FMD outbreak was contained and quickly resolved by means of vaccination and effective testing

Mongolia's final report was submitted to WAHID yesterday by Mr Doloojin Orgil, Director, Ministry of Food and Agriculture. It gives the simple statistics. It concludes: "The event is resolved. No more reports will be submitted."

11th August 2010 ~ Miyazaki carries out "visual examinations" to "prove" the end of FMD

Modern veterinary technology has been ignored at the end of the Miyazaki outbreak just as it was at the start. The trading status of "FMD free without vaccination" has been protected - but not people - nor valuable animals killed even though vaccinated and uninfected. Costs have been very considerable. Rather than use rapid diagnosis to check any lingering virus, the Japanese authorities (we learn today thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis) (japantimes.co.jp)
".... as part of efforts to dispel rumors about the livestock's safety... It had veterinarians visit about 7,600 farms through Friday to implement visual examinations of cows....while the safety of pigs at about 470 farms was confirmed by Monday through such steps as visits and telephone calls to farmers..."
The economic impact on Miyazaki Prefecture from the outbreak is "likely to total 235 billion yen over the next five years, the prefectural government said Tuesday" (source) This is about £1.75 billion. The social and psychological costs, which cannot be counted in monetary terms, have been greater. ( See just one sad example below.)
As we have said so depressingly often, portable and effective diagnostic devices such as (Gene-Stat) are far too useful not to be used in countries such as the UK and Japan. The only question that remains is when will governments push for the outdated regulations of the OIE and EU to be updated?

July 26th 2010 ~ "Objectively, a single, solitary sick water buffalo showing "fever and diarrhea" is not usually expected to become subject to suspicion of FMD"

According to the news report at www.asiaone.com the initial Japanese case is believed to have been at a water buffalo farm in Tsunocho in mid-March. The newspaper comments:
"The team believes effective initial response measures against the disease were stymied as a result of the detection delay of the real first case."
The ProMed moderator reminds us that the 1st case
"had started already on 26 Mar 2010 ....and was diagnosed, by RT-PCR, on 23 Apr 2010, leading to the culling of the entire farm's population..Objectively, a single, solitary sick water buffalo showing "fever and diarrhea" is not usually expected to become subject to suspicion of FMD. It remains to be known if this animal showed other, more typical signs, such as oral lesions or lameness. Even if some oral lesions were seen, such (mucosal) signs could have been mistaken for a (rare) complication of bovine virus diarrhea (BVD), a globally distributed pestiviral disease. Additional details on the said buffalo, including its age, will be helpful. ."
and implies that no blame can be directed at anyone in Miyazaki for the delay. Instead, he calls for lessons to be learned - especially from the answer to the question: "how and from where did the virus (which circulates in China and South Korea) get into this Tsuno farm in the 1st place?"
Roger Breeze has written: "There are repeated calls for cheap, rapid pen-side tests that can detect FMD and other pathogens.... Such tests have existed for some years. The FMD real-time PCR test (and others for CSF, etc.) was always intended to be the trigger for regulatory action and response when used to detect and report infection, in close to real time, from the index farm over the Internet..." (See the 2006 OIE paper by Roger Breeze 'Technology, public policy and control of transboundary livestock diseases in our lifetimes') How very different would have been the lives of all those Miyazaki farmers if it had not taken virtually a whole month before their first most unfortunate FMD case was diagnosed.

July 21st 2010 ~"we have seen just how dangerous this particular serotype of FMD can be in terms of rapidity of spread"

FMD in Russia is indeed the same serotype O, Southeast Asia topotype that has been identified in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, and Tibet. The ProMed moderator says,
"... The location is only a few kilometers from the Chinese border and helps all of us to learn, again and again, that virulent fast moving strains of FMD have to be fought vigorously and expeditiously. One key to success in such an endeavor is transparency concerning where and when the disease occurs as well as complete laboratory analysis and comparison of genotypes circulating in any given geographic area. Let us hope this incursion over the Russian border can be contained because we have seen just how dangerous this particular serotype of FMD can be in terms of rapidity of spread. "
Colleagues psoting on Twitter have expressed a deep concern about the state of the UK's readiness in dealing swiftly with foot and mouth when - as is highly likely - this strain appears here. The technology exists to get to grips with the disease fast: rapid diagnosis and the quick application of emergency vaccination to live. Surely the miserable mistakes of 2001 and 2007 are not going to be repeated out of ignorance?

July 20th/21st 2010 ~ FMD on the move westwards from Asia. Russia is vaccinating

Russia is experiencing its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth since 2006. The virus was found in livestock 7.5 miles from the Chinese border, according to the OIE WAHID report. 112 cattle and 4 pigs are affected.. Vaccination and quarantine measures have been applied, according to the OIE alert.
As we report on Twitter today, "FMD coming west from Asia is on same path as 2001. NOT vaccinating cost us@£17 billion to protect £560 million trade." (See also below)

July 16th/17th 2010 ~ New surveillance system predicted Asian FMD - and a new vaccine is already available.

At the Biorbis Conference on Vaccine Production and Manufacturing in Amsterdam at the end of June, Dr. Samuel Bogoch, chairman of BioRadar UK Ltd., reported that BioRadar(TM) predicted one year ago the current severe Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks in Asia "after recording an increase of the Replikin Count (ref. 1) of the FMD Virus (FMDV) to its highest level in 52 years" (The Replikin Count^TM determined by virus protein software analysis, provides an index of the capacity for virus rapid replication.)
Today's Press release says (extract):
"...The Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks now rampant in Asia are moving west to the Middle East and south to Africa.
The last major FMD outbreak followed the same path of spread, and cost approximately 17 billion pounds sterling when it reached the U.K. in 2001.."
The Replikins website announces that a new synthetic Trans-Strain FMD Vaccine, called TransFMDV(TM), has been developed and is now available.
It is interesting at last to see a realistic estimate of the financial cost of the 2001 outbreak and to recall that the non vaccination policy was designed to protect an export trade worth around £560 million. Yet even now, the UK contingency plan continues to prevaricate about vaccination. The Dutch contingency plan, on the other hand, now specifies the use of vaccination or marker vaccination in a radius of 2km around a source herd and the conclusion of the 160 page report from the Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen University was that:
"A quick and large-scale vaccination within a radius of at least 2km is as effective as preemptive 1-km ring culling to mitigate FMD epidemics..."

July 16th 2010 ~ FMD Myazaki. Elderly owner's face says it all - the stud bulls are doomed

The owner of the stud bulls in Miyazaki Prefecture, whose anguished elderly face can be seen on the Japanese site here - finally gave a reluctant consent today, following intense political pressure, for his uninfected wagyu stud bulls to be slaughtered. The reason given - that this will stop spread - is frankly laughable. They are uninfected, but the fact that they are vaccinated means - according to the bizarrely outdated OIE regulations and in particular OIE code 8.5.8. - that trade cannot resume quickly if they are allowed to survive. Yet their value is almost beyond price. As we learn from a Japanese colleague on Twitter, these privately-owned bulls, born between 2000 and 2006 in Miyazaki, have produced 700 calves & 2000 sperm straws each year of their productive lives. Can anyone seriously deny that their killing is cruel, unnecessary stupidity?

July 16th 2010 ~"It was very easy to use! Sample preparation took about two minutes. We all learned how to use the GeneSTAT within a few minutes."

This was one comment about the ease of use of the rapid, portable diagnostic device known as "GeneSTAT". An official report of the Vietnam validation of the system was being given in Rome at the FAO/IAEA Meeting on Rapid Reporting of Transboundary Diseases in May this year.
The GeneSTAT(R) test module requires a simple swab of the mouth, nose or throat. The thermocyler and cartridges process the sample and provide a reportable result within 70 minutes. It is widely used in the former Soviet Union to detect at source pathogens that include FMD.
Before 1980 the policy of killing "contact" herds was not questioned because laboratory techniques then simply could not have handled the volume of samples to check for infection. As the ProMed moderator, MHJ, commented in August 2007
"....Today all that is different and thousands of samples are run each day. This brings home the point that the laboratory must move into the field and test animals quickly before irreversible actions are taken."
Such portable and effective diagnostic devices are far too useful not to be used in countries such as the UK and Japan. The only question that remains is WHEN will the outdated regulations of the OIE and EU pass into history. What is the real price of guarding the monopoly of central laboratories and of using unsound science to "justify" protectionism? Discriminating against vaccination is absurd when it is now possible to distinguish FMD infected animals from purely vaccinated ones.

July 16th 2010 ~ FMD Myazaki: "We urged the quarantine officer many times to examine the cow, but he didn't listen to us..."

The suspect cow was found at a Shintomicho farm where 500 cows, vaccinated the month before, were being slaughtered because the policy of suppressive vaccination allowed Japan to retain its FMD without vaccination trade status. Vets and quarantine officers who were in the process of killing the animals discovered one cow exhibiting what have been described as "mild" clinical symptoms of FMD. Instead of being closely examined and properly tested, it was killed and buried that day. According to the article at www.yomiuri.co.jp, 3 vets involved said they thought the animal "obviously" had the disease and had asked in vain for the cow to be examined. The Minister for Agriculture is quoted as saying yesterday:
"[If a cow] had been found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease, it would've delayed lifting the restrictions on the movement of livestock."
He went on to add,"It's regrettable the suspicious case wasn't reported. We plan to thoroughly [investigate it]."
As we know from the UK crisis of 2001, since foot and mouth occurs rarely in non endemic countries, most vets are inexperienced at FMD diagnosis by sight alone. In the frenetic atmosphere of the UK's crisis of 2001 when lab tests were rare, any mouth blisters were considered proof of disease.
It would seem that there is a regrettable amount of political mud-slinging taking place in Japan. Arguments between the Miyazaki Governor, Hideo Higashikokubaru, and Tokyo officialdom can be no substitute for a cool consideration of lessons to be learned from the Myazaki outbreak. As we have said many times, it is heartbreaking that there is such ignorance about the existing technology for a quick, effective and humane response to an incursion of FMD.

July 10th 2010 ~ Myazaki FMD - priceless and healthy stud bulls. Will they be sacrificed because of OIE code 8.5.8.?

The Associated Press (AP) reports that the Japanese government will decide early next week whether or not to slaughter the 6 privately owned stud bulls in Miyazaki Prefecture, adding that the prefecture's Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru had "earlier expressed hope that the prefectural government would take over and save the stud bulls as an exception." The prefectural government's earlier recommendation - to vaccinate and then slaughter the stud bulls - had been opposed by the bull's owner. Once again, it is the trade advantages of the status of "FMD free without vaccination" rather than disease control considerations that drive official decisions about slaughtering healthy animals.
If no new outbreaks come to light, Japan will, under the terms of article 8.5.8. of OIE's terrestrial Animal Health Code "Recovery of free status", be permitted to regain this lucrative status 3 months after 5 Jul 2010 (the date its last infected and vaccinated animals were stamped out) The ProMed moderator comments:
"Refraining from killing the 6 stud bulls, described above, without affecting the said timetable, may be considered provided the bulls have not been vaccinated and are not serologically positive."(Actually, only five of the six "ace-class" seed bulls in Miyazaki Prefecture have survived so far.)
So, once again we have the preposterously ironic situation of the bulls being killed if they ARE vaccinated or if they HAVE recovered from the disease and are protected with their own antibodies. In neither case would they actually be a risk since no vaccinated healthy animal in the field has ever been shown to have infected any other. One wonders how long the discrimination against vaccination - which has no basis in veterinary science - will continue to cause misery and anxiety for farmers and owners who, even though vaccines are extremely effective, find themselves powerless to protect their animals.

July 7th 2010 ~ "One of the problems is that lessons are lost ..."

Yesterday, in the House of Lords (Hansard), Baroness Byford asked for clarification on Cost Sharing. Lord Rooker explained that no company would carry the risk of insuring farmers against disease, "which, by definition, would be too great". He disarmingly confessed that he had failed, when in the Minister's position, to get his own solution up and running. It would have been to have "the same system for animals as exists for terrorism: there would not be a commercial market were it not for the pooling system of the contributions, backed up at the end of the day by the Government" (Could any reader explain this?)
Lord Clark of Windermere: "... Will the Minister ensure that his department has in place a lesson-learning system so that, if ever we face foot and mouth again, we are prepared for it? ..."
Lord Henley (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DEFRA) replied:
"My Lords, the noble Lord and I are both old enough to remember the 2001 outbreak. I can just about remember the 1967 outbreak - I was in short trousers - and other Members of this House who are older than me might also remember it. The noble Lord will also remember that there was a good report from, I think, the Duke of Northumberland into that outbreak from which lessons could have been learnt, and lessons could have been learnt from the 2001 outbreak. ..."
Read Hansard

July 7th 2010 ~ Lessons that could and should have been learned - and were not

Over forty years ago, the Northumberland Report following the 1967 crisis made far-sighted recommendations about vaccination and swift diagnosis - but these failed to inform the policies of 2001 - and were then ignored again in the outbreak of 2007. Yet at the very start of that outbreak (caused, it later became clear, by a leak from IAH Pirbright where vaccine for the exact leaked strain was available), so many comments seemed to pave the way for sanity:
• "Certainly as an industry we would not stand in any way to object to vaccination if the scientists deem it the right way of moving forward." (Peter Kendall, president of NFU on the Today Programme)
• "The Government deserves congratulation for learning the lessons of its shambolic response to the devastating 2001 crisis by stopping all animal movements and preparing for vaccination of surrounding herds as soon as the virus is identified. A clear lesson of the last outbreak was the need for speedy vaccination, so the isolation of the virus and a potential matching with banks of vaccine will be key."Chris Huhne ( Liberal Democrat environment spokesman)
• " The Government must consider emergency vaccination of animals in affected areas to help control the disease and prevent healthy animals being slaughtered needlessly" Philip Lymbery, Compassion In World Farming's Chief Executive
• "Everything must be done to make sure we do not see a return to the appalling mass slaughter of farm animals that occurred during the last outbreak. There was widespread public revulsion at the funeral pyres and mass killing, and animal welfare seemed to be the lowest priority for the authorities. That must not be allowed to happen again."Jackie Ballard, MP for Taunton in 2001
  (Comments quoted in The Argus 4th August 2007)
Although the Government had secured 300,000 doses of emergency vaccine and put vaccination teams on standby, it was decided not to vaccinate. The out-of-date nature of EU discrimination against FMD vaccination underlies all this. Appreciation of rapid diagnosis, of the efficacy of NSP-free vaccines, and of DIVA tests to differentiate vaccinated from infected animals all comprise lessons still waiting to be learned.

July 5th 2010 ~ The FMD tragedy in Japan is not over. "Miyazaki cow tests positive for foot-and-mouth disease"

If the website kyodo.co.jp is correct:
"A cow in the city of Miyazaki has tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease in gene tests after showing symptoms of the livestock disease, including excessive salivation, the farm ministry said Monday.
The Miyazaki prefectural government had slaughtered and buried all 16 cows bred at the same farm by Monday morning before the results of the gene tests were known, local government officials said.
With the new case, the prefectural government will have to postpone its plan to declare an end to the outbreak in the southwestern Japanese prefecture from July 16 to 27 at the earliest..." Read in full
The FMD story in Japan seems to be one of delayed diagnosis, official complacency and ignorance. The farmers of Miyazaki might well wonder why the lessons of the UK's outbreak in 2001 were not learned, and why knowledge has not been sought about rapid diagnosis, effective vaccination-to-live and DIVA testing. Central government politicians were heartbreakingly slow to take seriously such a tragedy for livestock farming and rural businesses.

June 30th 2010 ~ Foot and Mouth in Japan: The Miyazaki prefectural government plans to lift its state of emergency tomorrow

It seems likely that the last of the vaccinated animals will be killed by Wednesday and domestic beef and pork shipments will be allowed to start again on July 16th - as long as no new cases are found.
In the future, when vaccination is finally accepted as a life saver instead of a pre-slaughter precaution to protect trade, the recent words of Prime Minister Naoto Kan (www.isria.com):
"....We must swiftly slaughter vaccinated animals"
may well seem preposterous. The ProMed moderator's latest comment makes it very clear, yet again, that
" Japan's decision to apply a "stamping out with emergency vaccination", and "vaccination to cull" policy with surveillance, was driven mainly by the wish to regain speedily Japan's traditional FMD-free status without vaccination. It is based upon the provisions of the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code."
One wonders how long farmers and local rural businesses will have to wait before the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code is modified. Modern technology's FMD vaccines, DIVA tests and effective rapid local diagnosis should surely now favour - not discriminate against - a policy in which slaughter and distress can be kept to a minimum.

June 28th 2010 ~ "a delay in detecting foot-and-mouth disease in the early stages of its outbreak led to the spread of the virus in Miyazaki Prefecture"

Foot and Mouth misery continues in Japan with new cases found near towns and cities where no suppressive vaccination(i.e. preserving animals from disease only to kill them later) took place. Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, we learn that "four bovines were diagnosed with the disease in a farm with 725 bovines heads. All animals from the herd will have to be sacrificed to avoid spread." (UPDATE It would now seem that this information was incorect. See ProMed) News reports fail to mention how all these animals could have been saved if vaccination-to-live had been applied as soon as FMD had been diagnosed.
Most unfortunately, that diagnosis was delayed. As we read at www.asiaone.com
"An agriculture ministry study team has concluded that a delay in detecting foot-and-mouth disease in the early stages of its outbreak led to the spread of the virus in Miyazaki Prefecture."
Would this happen in the UK? It seems all too likely. There is a wilful failure to perform an accurate cost benefit analysis of different policies during an outbreak. There is also confusion about routine preventative vaccination when no FMDV is circulating and emergency vaccination when FMDV is circulating.
As this site has said so many times, the status of "FMD free without vaccination" allows trade to resume after 3 months - whereas minimal slaughter combined with emergency vaccination to live is discriminated against since trade cannot resume - according to regulations that have no basis in science - for six months. Current policies are not based on recent scientific advances and demonstrate a callous disregard for animal and human welfare. Their overhaul cannot happen too soon.

June 28th 2010 ~ In the Netherlands, mass culling is never going to take place, again

It is interesting and encouraging that the Dutch Ministry - not waiting for the change in regulations about the resumption of trade that must inevitably come sooner or later - has officially written in their Contingency Plan that mass culling is never going to take place, again and that immediate emergency vaccination to live will start (both for FMD and CSF) in the event of an outbreak.

June 22nd 2010 ~ The inevitable march of on-site rapid testing will force a change of policy - sooner rather than later, we hope

The acceptance of new technology, together with the realisation that vaccines against FMD just go on getting better all the time, will inevitably get through to policy makers in the end. The EU trade discrimination against FMD vaccinated animals may soon, thankfully, be a thing of the past. As we read at voanews.com on June 18th: "New technologies can be carried to the field in a suitcase..." Versions of this technology for detecting livestock diseases have, of course, been available for several years.
The abstract of a new paper, Options for Decentralized Testing of Suspected Secondary Outbreaks of Foot-and-mouth Disease in Transbound Emerg Dis. 2010 Jun 1 by authors that include David Paton and Keith Sumption, has just appeared:
"... Portable RT-PCR platforms .....may be used on infected farms as pen-side tests, in regional, local or mobile laboratories, or in National Reference Laboratories (NRL)...."
When many scientists themselves are so often intimately connected to the National Reference Labs, we are not altogether surprised to read: " Tests to confirm the diagnosis of the index case of an outbreak of FMD should continue to be carried out in the NRL." But as Roger Breeze wrote in 2006 "Transboundary disease diagnosis will never go back to being the province of a small club in select laboratories. We need to get these new generations of tests validated and out where they can be used within one year or less from discovery. The matter of pathogen detection has been trivial for some time and the tough question has become how to best use the new tests and the information they generate."

June 18th 2010 ~ Now rain in Miyazaki adds to the misery

Yesterday's edition of www.yomiuri.co.jp reported that the start of the rainy season in Miyazaki Prefecture is "slowing the culling and burial of cows and pigs infected with foot-and-mouth disease"
They might well have added that the bodies of those many healthy animals, also slaughtered under Japan's contiguous cull policy, will be no easier to bury - and there are nearly 28,000 cows and pigs still doomed. In yet more grim echoes of 2001 in the UK we learn that Japan's
" .. central government decided to send additional Self-Defense Force personnel to the area. The number, however, is far from sufficient..."
Heavy machinery is getting stuck in mud. Rainwater, unable to drain from the bottom of burial sites, is now considered contaminated and must be pumped out and evaporated, or else,we read, be "wrapped in plastic and buried". There are not enough vets. It is an unholy mess.
On top of everything, we are still reeling from the words of Prof. Yoshitaka Goto of University of Miyazaki, quoted without comment or further explanation by yomiuri.co.jp yesterday:
"It looks like vaccination has stopped the disease from continuing to infect new animals, but that doesn't mean the virus has stopped spreading."
Read the article and weep.

June 18th 2010 ~ Many know perfectly well that Japan's policy is at least ten years out of date.

Where are the voices raised in protest? History is being cruelly and unnecessarily repeated ten years after the miserable fiasco of 2001 in the UK - yet countries not under the thrall of poweful business interests do use vaccination to live and deploy the GPS assisted rapid diagnosis kits to ensure spread can be stopped without mass killing. As long ago as 2001, Uruguay did just that. Japan's policy is bringing with it all the concomitant social hardships we saw in the UK. On Twitter we learn without surprise that "Not only stock raising, but also vehicles, flower & vegetable farmers have been maltreated only because they are from Miyazaki" and that diagnostic tests from Miyazaki are indeed still being sent long distances to the central laboratory before virus can officially be confirmed. An unholy waste of time, of animals, of people's lives and livelihoods. Despite the protests of Miyazaki farmers, the government refuses to postpone the election campaign. That will start on June 24th.

June 16th 2010 ~ "We should not be surprised that FMD is causing losses to branches of Japan's economy other than agriculture.." ProMed

Commenting on the article in the Japan Times that 60 billion yen to 70 billion yen (70 billion yen is about £515,315,285 ) is already estimated by the Japanese government to be the cost of the current outbreak, the ProMed moderator, AS, says,
"Comparative economic consequences of a major FMD epizootic in a highly industrialised country can be sought in several investigations and reports which followed the 2001 FMD outbreak in the United Kingdom......the losses to agriculture and the food chain, including the costs compensated by the exchequer, amounted to about GBP 3.1 billion (about USD 4.33 billion, in 2001 terms), while businesses directly affected by tourist expenditure were estimated to lose a similar amount (between GBP 2.7 and 3.2 billion)...see http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/fmd/fmd_report/documents/d-govtpublications/DEFRA_DCMS.pdf
(see also warmwell page on costs) The sheer scale of costs and the way they were allowed to escalate in 2001 are hard to credit. The UK's mass slaughter policy had never had any cost benefit analysis carried out. In their paper, "Not the Foot and Mouth Report" Christopher Booker and Richard North wrote:
"At 50p a shot, with a further £4.50 for administration, the cost of vaccinating even 40 million of Britain's 60 million farm animals would have been £200 million."
In the event, as we know, the costs in the UK amounted to billions in the end. The policy was designed to save the export trade. The export trade was worth around £560 million.

June 16th 2010 ~ Prime minister Naoto Kan says, "We are on the brink of it spreading to the rest of Kyushu."Japan Times

In spite of all the hard work put in to validate the NSP test so that "vaccination to live" based on the NSP test can be used following rapid detection of FMD, countries such as Japan and those in the EU are still clinging to policies that are at least ten years old in order to continue the protectionist advantages of the status of "FMD free without vaccination". It is heartbreaking to think of the losses caused by treating FMD as an economic disease. The technological boons of the 21st century are there to counter this disease instead of the panicky contiguous culling of all susceptible animals (including priceless breeding bulls, calves and pregnant cows) and the use of vaccination only to kill later. And even then, as is the present fear, the disease may still be spreading ever further.

June 14th 2010 ~ "The results of the assay of the invention are available within 30 minutes, a significant advantage since FMDV is highly contagious and will spread rapidly through the herd."

The United States Patent US7732145 published online on June 8th refers to a rapid immunoassay method and apparatus for detecting foot and mouth disease virus It allows for the rapid detection of antibody to the FMD virus and can differentiate between infection antibodies and those arising from vaccination.
"..The method and test device permit pen-side testing of animals and provide test results within a relatively short time period.... the method and apparatus provide a means for differentiating between FMDV-infected and FMDV-vaccinated animals.... a liquid sample from animals suspected of having been exposed to FMDV are diagnosed within 30 minutes....The present invention further provides an assay system that will measure the efficacy of vaccinations. The present invention disclosed herein provides for the current deficiencies in the art by providing an assay system that allows for the rapid detection of antibodies to both SPs and NSPs, thereby allowing for vaccinated animals to be differentiated from those that are infectious. Finally, the present invention provides a detection method that allows for rapid analysis of the geographic distribution of specific FMDV serotypes and/or serotype subtypes for epidemiological studies. ....The immunochromatographic assay disclosed herein allows for the diagnosis of FMDV infection, for the identification of FMDV carriers, as well as for the ability to differentiate between an infected animal and an animal that has been vaccinated (and thus protected from FMDV). ...." Read abstract in full
See pdf file. The technologies to combat FMD have been in place for some time. Policies will certainly change. If not today then tomorrow - and why not today?

June 14th 2010 ~ "...if we can do this, if we can fix that, can we call a General Election?" Richard Macdonald recalls Alastair Campbell on the phone in 2001

Richard MacDonald, the ex-NFU Director General, who is going to chair the new Task Force set up by James Paice into the over regulation of farming, recalls in the Farmers Guardian the decision not to vaccinate in 2001. In this article from November, he talks of having no regrets, even though he "acknowledges that, eight years on, some farmers will never return to the NFU on the basis of that decision alone." He "goes on to give an extraordinary insight into the panic the outbreak wreaked within Government..."
Like Sir David King, Mr Macdonald considers that the decision not to vaccinate in 2001 was "the right one". He and Ben Gill persuaded the government against vaccination. He says,
" ... We stuck to the science and came to a decision we believed was right."
But the thinking on the science has evidently now changed as these recommendations for FMD from the Draft EU Policy paper on "Vaccine AND/OR DIAGNOSTIC BANKS for major animal diseases: strategic planning options FOR EMERGENCY situations or major crises" show. All that remains to counter calls for vaccination and rapid diagnosis is the protectionist nature of the "FMD free without vaccination" status of countries whose policy is driven by the big exporters.

June 14th 2010 ~ FMD Vaccination was - at the very moment of Alistair Campbell's phone call in 2001 - successfully eliminating FMD without mass slaughter.

Uruguay was also successfully testing and using the USDA/ARS on-site diagnostic kit offered to the UK turned down because of David King's lack of understanding or enthusiasm. As Roger Breeze has said
"Fortunately, we were able to take the devices and test system into the field in Uruguay in November 2001, where they performed splendidly on farm in a remote area...."
We fear that what is happening in Japan could happen here too since contingency planning is not based on modern knowledge - and wonder if anyone can still seriously deny that the modern boons of vaccination, DIVA tests and rapid diagnosis performed on-site cannot swiftly end the sort of misery currently being experienced in Japan. Please do contact warmwell.com and we will by happy to publish arguments that have a scientific base.

June 12th 2010 ~ "For me, this is the end," says 86 year old Japanese farmer

Tsuyoshi Kawasaki,was quoted by the New York Times yesterday. His calf, "sired by a legendary local stud bull named Tadafuji... must be destroyed because Mr. Kawasaki's barn falls within a 6-mile [10 km] radius of the outbreak zone."
His calf is not carrying the virus.
Mr Kawasaki has raised cattle in a small hamlet for 60 years. Two other cows, one pregnant with another Tadafuji calf, have also been marked for destruction. This will bring back such bitter memories of the deep distress and waste of life nearly ten years ago in the UK and the Netherlands when it was the policy and not the disease that killed so many uninfected animals. Yet in Uruguay in the same year, the disease was quickly brought under control by the use of modern technology.
ProMed moderator, AS, comments:
"....The publication of an article on the Japanese FMD outbreak in the New York Times is indicative of the growing interest in this major epizootic, its economic impact and the control measures applied, beyond Japan."
and it may be some consolation for the despair one feels that ProMed have published in full today the letter sent by the European Livestock Association to the Japanese government, to which we linked below.

June 12th 2010 ~ Japan's new PM regards the present outbreak of FMD as a "National Crisis"

Japan's new Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has " visited farms" and has said to the livestock farmers in Miyazaki prefecture, and according to www.channelnewsasia.com, (the unfortunate translation may be apposite):
"I want to do everything in my power to stop spreading the infection and terminate it.."
"Everything in his power" might include a serious consideration of the factors that prevent the deployment of rapid diagnosis and vaccination. The recent communications from Roger Breeze and the open letter from the European Livestock Association have explained with urgency and concern that FMD is a disease that can indeed be terminated. As Dr Breeze says:
"... All the tools to do this are available. Many countries have used them to become FMD free. Japan should seize this opportunity to remove the threat beyond its borders to secure the future of its own farmers and those everywhere else." See Dr Breeze's letters.
Foot and Mouth is an economic disease that cost the UK billions in 2001 - yet, the combined use of on-site diagnosis and emergency vaccination can halt spread rapidly. Yet national policies to counter the disease have not moved much beyond the end of the nineteenth century - as Abigail Woods' "A Manufactured Plague" explained. That the old political mindset persists, resulting in such an enormity of waste, destruction and misery, is - to those of us who have been studying this area for nearly a decade - an unfathomable and indeed, shameful, mystery.

June 11th 2010 ~ "the real tragedy of FMD ... takes place silently every day in those countries that live with FMD as an endemic infection" Roger Breeze

The impact of the 2001 FMD fiasco in the UK - (and what other word can one use for months of chaos, bungling, inhumanity and unnecessary grief?) - caused this website to begin its daily cri de coeur in April 2001. It has continued in existence ever since. In spite of the effectiveness and availablity of the modern technologies to eliminate such diseases globally, the past decade, astonishingly, has not seen the political will to use them . Yet, as Roger Breeze writes in a follow-up email today:
"If we commit to a new vision, eradication of many diseases will occur during the lifetime of our children"
Dr Breeze quotes a letter to The Times at the height of the UK's 2001 FMD crisis, from British vet, Peter Roeder, then a Food and Agriculture Organization Field Officer, who said nine years ago that what was urgently needed was a concerted fight against FMD and other epidemic diseases, starting at their source where the reservoirs of infection persist. For the more developed nations to assist the developing nations in this fight must be regarded as enlightened self-interest, not benevolence.
"... the Cambodian subsistence farming family loses half its rice crop when the buffaloes are hit during paddy field preparation, and the fattening pigs and calves die or require expensive treatment. The progressive Bangladeshi dairy farmer with ten cows loses overnight most of the milk production and daily income from it. When the disease strikes just after lambing time, the northern Iraqi shepherd loses 400 of his 500 lambs from heart damage, together with much of the milk for consumption and sale. These real examples do not cover the full spectrum of impact, but they do illustrate the immediate, direct effects of FMD. The fight against epidemic diseases of humans and animals is far from over; indeed, for livestock diseases it has barely started in most of the world."
(Read today's email from Roger Breeze)

June 11th 2010 ~ "There are now no technological barriers to the elimination of the major transboundary livestock diseases - including foot and mouth"

(See R.G. Breeze Technology, public policy and control of transboundary livestock diseases in our lifetimes Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 2006, 25 (1), 271-292) FMD is a prime example of transmissible diseases that have the potential for very serious and rapid spread, irrespective of national borders. They are of serious socio-economic or public health consequence and are of major importance in the international trade of animals and animal products. Dr Breeze concludes that the government of Japan "could do itself and world a great service by determining the source of the current FMD outbreak and then resolving to help that country eliminate FMD. All the tools to do this are available". (Read letter in full)

June 10th 2010 ~ European Livestock Association: "... a better way of animal health control, appropriate to the scientifically advanced tools of the 21st Century"

We had hoped so fervently in at the end of the foot and mouth crisis of 2001 that we would never see again such scenes of devastation and horror. But Japanese farmers on Twitter today are saying they hope no other farmers will ever have to live through the "hell" of their present policy, posting photos of white-coated killers and animal corpses on cranes that bring back unbearable memories. A law recently rushed through to allow healthy animals to be killed shows the depth of ignorance among those who direct policy in Japan and the utter failure of our own country to enable others to learn from the grim mistakes of 2001.
However, in an attempt to publicise lessons learned, the European Livestock Association, firmly behind vaccination to live, has written to Dr. Toshiro Kawashima, CVO in Japan (and copied to Dr. Bernard Vallat, OIE, John Dalli, EU Commisioner Health and Consumer Policy and all Members of the European Parliament) The letter is backed by senior British vets and virologists and informed also by the expertise of those closely involved in the swift eradication of FMD in Uruguay in 2001. It makes some urgent recommendations involving vaccination. Extract:
"
• ... the size of the vaccination zones should not be based on a generic contingency plan, but must be estimated according to the type of outbreak: e.g.a multiple loci situation versus a single FMD locus quickly identified.
  In the first case the zones must be large, in the last case the zones can be kept relatively small
• to apply modern purified high potency emergency vaccines that are very effective and provide protective immunity in a matter of days
• after vaccination, to differentiate infected animals from vaccinated animals (DIVA strategy), by serological screening of vaccinated farms using the appropriate tests;.."
Read the ELA letter (pdf) in full

June 10th 2010 ~ Japan's entire livestock industry is now threatened. "Why in 2010 - in Japan of all places - is a government vet turning up to a reported case of suspect FMD without the tools to make a diagnosis?" asks Roger Breeze

Today's news is that foot and mouth disease - in spite of desperate widespread killing - has spread to Miyakonojo city, Japan's largest producer of pork and beef, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki. All livestock are now at risk from Japan's policy. We have received a letter from Roger Breeze this morning that should be read in full. The former Director of the USDA Plum Island Animal Disease Center, who now works to advise the US Defense Department on a multibillion dollar program on close-to-real-time public health and veterinary disease surveillance in the former Soviet Union, knows more about disease control than anyone we know. Of the situation in Japan he writes:
"I have a few questions..... Why is the source of an FMD outbreak or infection always " unknown or inconclusive" ? Why are we not applying modern microbial forensic tools to trace the virus to its source outside Japan by its biological signature (Carrillo, C. and Rock, D. Molecular epidemiology and forensics of RNA viruses, in Microbial Forensics, Editors Breeze, R.G., Budowle, B. and Schutzer, S. E., Elsevier, 2005, 174-185)?
Of course Japan is in a critical situation two months later. You cant misdiagnose the world's most infectious virus disease in an intensive animal agricultural region full of cattle and swine for 10 days and not expect catastrophe...."
More below - or read in full.

June 10th 2010 ~ "For the want of a $50 PCR test kit in the right place Japan is paying dearly...."

Dr Breeze's letter asks:
"Why in 2010 - in Japan of all places - is a government vet turning up to a reported case of suspect FMD without the tools to make a diagnosis?" For sure, if positive and missed, this will be the most important decision of that person's career and a catastrophe for animal agriculture. An on-farm PCR test for FMD on April 9 (using the $50 Tetracore FMD real time PCR test, www.tetracore.com) on a $50,000 IdahoTechnology RAPID PCR machine (www.idahotechnology.com) would have given the answer within an hour. Since this is a preclinical test that detects FMD-infected animals 2 to 3 days before they show clinical signs of disease a pooled sample from several animals could have been used. The best science could have given the answer in one hour: in fact it took 11 days.
And to confirm that infection, why does Japan not have the Tessarae resequencing microarray at the NIAH so that within 5 hours ALL the pathogens in the sample can be identified and 1500 bases of the actual genetic sequences of all those present can be directly defined (www.tessarae.com)? A PCR-positive sample taken on April 9 could have been identified by microarray the same day along with actual sequence information - in fact it was 14 days later before the official confirmation.
How is it that on 19 April the local government veterinary service tests by PCR for all the diseases except the one that matters - FMD? Is it because that regional lab did not possess the FMD PCR test used at NIAH? (Just as regional labs the world over defer to the National Lab as if it were still 1999!) If the lab is equipped and competent to run PCR tests for bluetongue, bovine viral diarrhoea-mucosal disease, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and Ibaraki disease, why not FMD? For the want of a $50 PCR test kit in the right place Japan is paying dearly. ....."
Read Dr Breeze's letter in full

June 7th 2010 ~ FMD in Japan: " I could not diagnose it from these symptoms."

A painful reminder of how the tragedy in Miyazaki could have been dramatically lessened if rapid on-site diagnostic RT-PCR tests had been available, is provided by the latest ProMed posting in which we read about " the delayed recognition of the FMD infection, in a buffalo and in cattle, in Miyazaki". Now, as the moderator says, "a total of 275 animal holdings, all in Miyazaki prefecture, have been confirmed as FMD-infected." Meanwhile, in Korea we see that - as in the UK in 2001 - healthy animals testing positive for antibodies (they have shaken off challenge by FMD) are still slaughtered. Modern diagnostic methods, not requiring biological containment but used safely on-site, can reveal the presence of virus preclinically; vaccines can protect the uninfected. The waste of life and money is utterly incomprehensible - as is the psychological fall-out (the Japan Times Weekly says distraught farmers need psychological help as much as monetary compensation.)
Yet rapid diagnosis has been available for a decade - and now there is even a fully tested British version of a penside test, the Enigma FL, (developed by the private company at Porton Down and independently tested at the VLA) which can pinpoint the presence of pathogens in real time before clinical symptoms are apparent.
In 2004, the Royal Society's Infectious Disease in Livestock Inquiry Follow-Up Review recommended that
the crucial challenge for DEFRA was to ensure that it has "brought together the many strands of its work on infectious diseases in livestock into a coherent structure"
The technology exists - but contingency planning is still in the Dark Ages. As Roger Breeze asked so cogently in 2003, Who will provide the Leadership?

June 7th 2010 ~ "Current policies are not based on recent scientific advances and demonstrate a callous disregard for animal and human welfare."

It was Anthony Gibson - remembered as one of the few impressive voices to be heard from the NFU in 2001 - who (October 1 2007) explained to Mark Holdstock on Farming Today that the real reason why the NFU opposes use of vaccination to control FMD is that the period before which export trade can be resumed is twice as long if vaccination is used. An extract from an email received yesterday from a very experienced English vet puts the situation very clearly:
"If we concentrate on trying to achieve the same time period for return to FMD-FREE status using slaughter alone (currently 3 months) and slaughter combined with emergency vaccination to live (currently 6 months) we will be able to move forward - and not a moment too soon. Current policies are not based on recent scientific advances and demonstrate a callous disregard for animal and human welfare."
This echoes the Press release, issued in September 2007, by the Federal organisation of German veterinarians: "... today it is possible to prove the infection of a single animal by virus dectection. The BTK (Bundestierärztekammer) has no sympathy for the culling of healthy animals for trade reasons."

June 6th 2010 ~ FMD in Japan could signal the end of the EU's non-vaccination policy, suggests Veerman

Under the headline "FMD in Asia could affect vaccination policies", Mariska Vermaas, the experienced agricultural journalist of the Agrarisch Dagblad in the Netherlands, quotes former minister of Agriculture, Cees Veerman:
"As a minister I have fought vigorously for a vaccination policy against diseases like FMD. We did not succeed in the EU at that time. Meat exports to East Asia, and in particular to Japan, were an important argument then. Japan refuses to import meat from vaccinated animals. Now that vaccination is used in Japan in their fight against FMD, it could possibly mean the end of the non-vaccination policy."
Read in full (Dutch) The comment shows so clearly that the non-vaccination policy is based - not on scientific or veterinary advice - but on purely economic grounds; the wish to maximise the profits of the major European exporters. However, when one sees the entire top-class Miyazaki beef industry in such jeopardy because of a policy that so belatedly used vaccination - and even then used "vaccination to kill" - it must surely call the the protectionist status of "FMD free without vaccination" into question. The notion that non-vaccination is in the economic interests of exporters could be true only if viruses started to respect political boundaries.

June 5th 2010 ~ Last 5 stud bulls in Miyazaki test negative for foot-and-mouth disease

The slaughter in Miyazaki continues - but at least the last five top-class stud bulls in Miyazaki Prefecture have tested negative for FMD in the final round of checks. See Kyodo News The seed bull that was destroyed and the remaining heealthy five have, between them, provided 90 percent of the sperm used for cattle production in the Miyazaki Prefecture. If all seed bulls had been destroyed, the livestock industry in Miyazaki would have been destroyed too. Raising a seed bull is said to take seven years or longer. The Japan Times Weekly says:
"...Many farmers must be distraught over the loss of their animals. Not only monetary compensation but also psychological help must be extended to them. .."
This is the aspect of foot and mouth that a non-vaccination policy ignores. Once again, it can't be emphasised too strongly that the "FMD free without vaccination" status, although it will give big exporters a considerable profit over countries that protect their animals from the virus, has no scientific or veterinary basis. If animals are not to be protected as a matter of course it is still possible to avert huge waste and distress in the event of an outbreak. A combination of on-site diagnosis and vaccination, working inwards, can protect animals that would otherwise be killed.

June 4th 2010 ~ Comparing FMD policy in Mongolia and Japan. Praise from ProMed for Mongolia's effective use of "vaccination in response to the outbreak"

ProMed's moderator comments:
"...The official Mongolian policy regarding FMD allows vaccination when necessary. ... When the current FMD epizootic was discovered in Dornod at the end of April 2010, severe quarantine measures... were immediately applied. They were combined with ring vaccinations or revaccinations around the infected farms. In OIE terminology: "vaccination in response to the outbreak."
For comparison: in Japan, where the official policy is "Vaccination prohibited," the decision to apply "vaccination in response to the outbreak" was taken a month after the discovery of the disease. - Mod.AS] (read ProMed posting in full)
It would be interesting to know more about Mongolia's use of rapid on-site diagnositic kits. Without the latest rapid diagnostic methods that ensure that apparently healthy animals are not already incubating disease, the eventual decision by Japan to use vaccination ("to kill") as a policy is flawed. If vaccinators inadvertantly pick up and spread the virus as they move around farms the whole object is worse than defeated. As the ProMed post of June 2nd showed - in the latest cases all infected farms had been vaccinated. What had not been done was to test for disease first. With a combination of rapid on-site diagnosis and vaccination performed on-site by "clean" personnel - i.e. farmers themselves - the disease can be defeated - as it is being, implies the ProMed moderator, so successfully defeated in Mongolia.

June 1 2010 ~ China's non-vaccination policy - "a policy which is in need of confirmation or explanation"

ProMed reports on China's follow-up report to OIE on FMD ( www.oie.int/wahis/public.php?page=single_report&pop=1&reportid=9322 ) which, under Control Measures Applied lists
• Stamping out
• Movement control inside the country
• Disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
• Dipping / Spraying
• No vaccination
• No treatment of affected animals
"No Vaccination" - and yet the ProMed posting also includes the extract from Business Week yesterday remarking that it is expected that revenue from sales of vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease from the China Animal Husbandry Industry Co. will increase "by a large margin."
To whom are these vaccines being sold if not to China itself to fight its own outbreak? The ProMed moderator shares our bafflement:
"It will be interesting to note which FMD vaccine users are targeted by the Chinese enterprise mentioned, whose "revenue from sales of vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease will increase by a large margin," according to the analyst's forecast. A decision not to vaccinate against FMD in China, against an FMD serotype O strain known to be highly infectious in multiple species, is a policy which is in need of confirmation or explanation."
(Read full ProMed posting)

May 31st 2010 ~ Japan imposes centralised law to kill livestock - no appeals

We learn from Earthtimes.org that Japan slaughtered its most prized premium quality wagyu bulls today in order, as the article puts it, "to help contain a spread of foot-and-mouth disease":
"The government of Miyazaki prefecture culled 49 bulls placed under its supervision in a move that left the region - known for its premium quality wagyu cattle - only five studs, which had been isolated after the outbreak of the disease..."
The Japanese parliament enacted a law on Friday to allow the central government to forcibly cull livestock The governor of Miyazaki had appealed to allow the 49 stud bulls be exempt from killing because they were "precious resources" for the region's agricultural industry.

May 31st 2010 ~ "..the progressive destruction of the entire susceptible animal population in and 10 km around the affected farms is expected to achieve soon the planned eradication."

ProMed's latest update should make us weep. This is the 21st century and Japan is a highly sophisticated society - yet their only response to the usually non-fatal animal disease of foot and mouth is to "cure" it by killing "the entire susceptible animal population". Heartbreakingly few scientists or vets are speaking out against this unspeakable stupidity.
And stupidity it is. As we saw in Uruguay in 2001, Foot and Mouth disease can be eradicated by vaccination alone without the massive killing of animals.
The elephant in the room is, of course, the protectionism that has made the status of "FMD free without vaccination" so sought after. Instead of protecting their national herds and flocks, countries with this economic status, like the UK in 2001 and 2007, enjoy the trade advantage and then, if FMD arrives, have to make unscientific claims in order to justify their chaotic and bloody crisis management. Yet no one dare suggest any more that vaccination against FMD doesn't work nor even that infected animals, inadvertantly vaccinated, can pose a danger of spread. Last week, the ProMed moderator, AS, spoke here of the
"preventive vaccination of selected animals to be kept alive, such as vaccination of valuable breeding stock, pedigree bulls and endangered species. It is worthwhile to stress that FMD-vaccinated animals, and their products, are absolutely fit for human consumption."
Vaccinated and infected animals can be distinguished on serology testing; authorities are still able to monitor the spread of disease when modern marker vaccines are used.. - in short, the objections to vaccination are economic ones - and it is the outmoded trade rules that should be challenged, not vaccination. (Unfortunately, Sir David King, ex-Chief Scientific Advisor for the UK, never allowed his own serious lack of FMD expertise to hinder him from using his very powerful position to dominate the decision making process for the worse in 2007 just as he did in 2001.)

May 22nd 2010 ~ Will Japan consider vaccination-to-live? asks ProMed

After the latest updates on the Foot and Mouth situation in Japan, the ProMed moderator (AS) makes a comparison with FMD 2001 in the UK, "including the political and economic ramifications". He notes that since
"... the disease is, so far, limited to one prefecture. Hopefully, vaccination combined with strictly applied biosecurity measures will prevent further spread.
From the published data, it is not clear if the authorities consider, on top of their "vaccination to slaughter" policy (which deserves discussion...), also preventive vaccination of selected animals to be kept alive, such as vaccination of valuable breeding stock, pedigree bulls and endangered species. It is worthwhile to stress that FMD-vaccinated animals, and their products, are absolutely fit for human consumption."
It is cheering to see this made so clear by such a respected source as ProMed. Read in full

May 20th/ 21st 2010 ~ "The statement that FMD cannot be eradicated by vaccination is absolutely false": FMD experts

Warmwell.com has received an email from Paul Sutmoller reminding us of the statement in Virus Research 91 (2003) 101-144, authored by himself, Simon Barteling, Raul Casas Olascoaga and Keith Sumption
Extract: "The statement that FMD cannot be eradicated by vaccination is absolutely false. Through the years several outbreaks have been controlled and eradicated by vaccination with a minimum of killing of livestock. A more recent example is the control and eradication of the disease in countries of South America. Uruguay, with a cattle population of about 10 million suffered an outbreak of FMD in 2001 affecting about 2000 herds. That country was able to control and eradicate the extensive outbreak with the application of livestock movement restrictions and vaccination of cattle only, in spite of having a large and fully susceptible sheep population in close contact and proximity of cattle. Only some 7000 animals were killed early in the outbreak. The total cost of eradication was under 14 million US$ of which 7.5 million were spend on vaccine..." (see full paper)
The assertion in the Kyodo news report cited without comment by ProMed that
"Vaccines can control the symptoms and delay the infection from spreading but it does not completely prevent livestock from being infected with the disease."
has troubled experts who understand both the disease and the efficacy of vaccines. The Japanese policy in Miyazaki prefecture of vaccinating and then killing seems quite bizarre as well as wasteful of life and resources.

May 20th 2010 ~ Unchallenged statement is misleading and inaccurate

In the Kyodo news report cited by ProMed, we read in some alarm the following statement: "Vaccines can control the symptoms and delay the infection from spreading but it does not completely prevent livestock from being infected with the disease."
After nine years of working on the subject of foot and mouth we know this should not have been left unchallenged and without comment. A very senior vet commented to warmwell last night:
"Vaccinated uninfected animals will become immune if the vaccine strain is a good match (and also usually of high potency) - time taken to produce immunity varies somewhat according to species etc - but usually robust immunity within 4-5 days. So these vaccinated animals will have good immunity and will not become infected.
Vaccinated infected animals will shed less virus - so this too is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage, of vaccination.
So the statement is misleading and inaccurate."
This reinforces our distress and frustration at the way countries that have opted for the status of "FMD free without vaccination" sometimes use false, scientific-sounding statements to justify their stance. The example of Holland (see below) when vaccinates were killed for purely financial reasons is still very fresh. Meanwhile the herds and flocks in the EU remain naive to the disease - which is spreading globally at a very alarming rate. Like many of us, the Devon Fine Fibres blog is under no illusions about the foolhardy nature of UK's complacency.

May 19th 2010~ "The government will vaccinate them before slaughter to slow the spread of the virus"

This grim news from Japan is that in Miyazaki prefecture, all pigs, beef cattle and dairy cows in areas where most cases of the disease have been discovered are going to be preemptively killed. (Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link to Bloomberg.com)
It is hard to see history repeating itself in this heartbreaking way. The irrationality of vaccinating - and then killing - healthy animals was shown in Holland in 2001. On 3 April the Netherlands obtained permission for protective vaccination, (vaccinated animals could live but would be prohibited from movement for at least one year) and farmers, believing their animals would be allowed to live, agreed to the protective vaccination area being much wider than was truly necessary for control of the disease. After vaccination was completed, their Government changed its mind and insisted on slaughtering the animals in a bid to qualify for normal trading after three months. At the Brussels conference following FMD 2001, Dr Frits Pluimers CVO of the Netherlands made an impassioned speech stating that he could not in the future ignore the will of the Dutch people and that vaccination would certainly be used should they be unfortunate enough to have another outbreak. However, they would never again follow a policy that slaughtered vaccinated animals, proved by tests to be uninfected. They would press for such tests, which, he insisted, already existed, to be internationally validated, and trading rules brought up to date with the science.

May 19th 2010 ~ The FMD situation in Japan means "internationally accepted alternatives....vaccination and/or prescribed, special biosecurity measures, deserve consideration" repeats ProMed moderator

The increasing destruction of livestock in the affected parts of Asia is causing authorities to question the "cull everything" approach to this usually non-fatal disease. As reported below, in Japan efforts are being made to exempt extremely valuable bulls from the general carnage. As the moderator, AS, remarks in the latest ProMed posting on FMD in Japan:
".....The need to move these animals, in order to salvage the highly valuable if not irreplaceable genetic source, demonstrates the dire straits in which the Japanese animal breeders find themselves due to the rapid and extensive spread of the virus. This incident will, undoubtedly, become one of the issues to be analysed when the time for lessons to be learned arrives. Internationally accepted alternatives to culling of valuable breeding stock or endangered species in FMD-free countries, e.g. by vaccination and/or prescribed, special biosecurity measures, deserve consideration. Such measures could be developed, for example, in accordance with the stipulations described in OIE's Code chapter 4.3 "Zoning and compartmentalisation;" (see at ). - Mod.AS]"
Or - the whole concept of the status of "FMD free without vaccination" could be reassessed in order to ensure that if the FMD virus crosses boundaries it does not find unprotected, unvaccinated herds and flocks. FMD vaccinated animals can be differentiated from infected ones, Can any reader convince us that the status of "FMD free without vaccination" has any veterinary or scientific validity? The financial losses involved in the latest global spread of the virus must surely make questionable such a protectionist barrier.

May 16th/17th 2010 ~ Korean officials say the FMD virus was imported from abroad..but spread unwittingly by movement around farms by vets

Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link. "The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease this year was caused by the import of the virus from neighboring countries, but the spread of disease within Korea was mainly due to veterinarians who visited infected farms, officials said yesterday. The first outbreak of FMD in Pocheon, Gyeonggi in January was likely caused by a foreign worker from a Northeast Asian country, believed to be either China or Mongolia, who entered Korea last October, according to the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, which conducted an investigation. The virus made its way to five other farms as a local vet who treated animals in the first affected farm visited others. In addition, the virus could have been spread by local farmers holding emergency meetings to discuss the outbreak."

May 16th/17th 2010 ~ Protecting our borders from FMD - "as part of the European Union (EU) the UK must apply the same rules as other EU Member States".

As FMD continues to rage in countries that have opted for the economic status of "FMD free without vaccination", those in the UK who are anxiously asking DEFRA for reassurance about what biosecurity arrangements are in place at UK borders and airports to prevent transmission of the FMD virus to the UK, are receiving less than clear or reassuring replies - if this one passed to warmwell.com today, is a representative example. In the UK - and indeed throughout the EU - all ruminant animals are susceptible to FMD as a result of the ban on FMD vaccines since 1991. The apparent insoucience of the authorities is strange (the threat is considered "low") and the lack of a coherent policy of protection is worrying, particularly when the source of the catastrophic FMD crisis of 2001 has never officially been acknowledged. We wonder what are the actual consequences for surveillance and preventative action of designating countries as "green" "amber" or "red" risks, what shade of risk Japan, China and Korea are considered to be at the moment - and what, if anything, is being decided about this in Brussels if, as the letter makes clear, the UK is powerless to act on its own.

May 16th 2010 ~ FMD continues to spread. "A possible solution...deserving consideration, is .. preventive vaccination" says ProMed moderator

The foot and mouth situation in Japan is very grim with thousands of animals being killed in an attempt to halt what is such a serious disease in economic terms even if the fatality rate in adult animals, were they allowed to live, is actually considered very low (see below). As we read in ProMed there are three main disease areas and 101 foci, detected so far and of particular concern is the Livestock Improvement Association Farm in Takanabe town where all the cows have been "earmarked for destruction". The 6 most valuable breeding bulls, however, are to be spared "in line with special clearance from MAFF" (Maff here, of course, refers to the Japanese Ministery of Forestry and Fisheries. The ProMed moderator, AS, comments:
"The involvement of an Artificial Insemination Center is a serious development, both epidemiologically and economically/zootechnically. A possible solution for the serious risk to valuable genetic resources, deserving consideration, is the preventive vaccination of such animals."

May 14th 2010 ~ Threat of FMD "low"?

The planned Stakeholder Meeting for Foot and Mouth in the UK did not take place in 2009. We see too that DEFRA's assessments in late April of the seriousness of the threat from the global increase in foot and mouth disease (documents/fmd-asia100423.pdf and a second report documents/fmd-eastasia100427.pdf) concluded that there is "a continual low risk of introduction". In Uruguay (see below), checks on air passengers from affected areas are being urgently intensified. In the UK, DEFRA is still relying on what it calls, "the need for keepers of FMD-susceptible animals in the UK to maintain vigilance and promptly report any suspected case, and uphold biosecurity measures, including strictly observing the ban on swill feeding."
In the light of the words of the FAO's Juan Lubroth and the draft paper from the working party of European experts, it might be thought a very good time to reassess the UK's ability to protect national herds and flocks and take a cool new look at the relevance of the present contingency plan.

May 13th 2010 ~ "the virus could be carried by a traveller.."

We see from the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, that Uruguay is taking the present threat of foot and mouth disease very seriously (Uruguay eradicated its 2001 FMD crisis by vaccinating its cattle. This was at the time when the UK was embarking on its contoversial pre-emptive mass cull policy.) Uruguay's Minister of Agriculture announced that the country is going to intensify control in the airports. The goal is to prevent the introduction of the virus that is causing the spread of FMD outbreaks in Asia.

May 12th 2010 ~ astonished that its recommendations and key messages are so clear and so unequivocal

The more we look at the expert draft paper prepared for the EU ((SANCO/7070/2010 Working Document)) the more astonished we are that its recommendations and key messages are so clear and so unequivocal. We feel enormous gratitude to the authors - the experts of the task force in the preparation of this policy paper: Martin Beer, David Paton, Armin Elbers, Stefano Maragon, Luis Jose Romero, Nikolaus G. Kriz, Declan O'Brien, Johanna Koolen, Menke Steenbergen and, for Scientific and technical coordination from Unit D1, DG SANCO: Klaus Depner and Isabelle Omer.
"existing legislation regarding emerging vaccination should be amended in such a way that vaccination becomes a realistic option in the event of a crisis" says one of the Key Messages Another important message is that
"Trade issues regarding vaccinated animals or fresh meat and meat products obtained from vaccinated animals should be resolved."
One feels considerably more optimistic about future policy - if the present anti-vaccination protectionist policies are looked at coolly in the light of what infectious animal diseases really mean to owners and animals. In Asia, foot and mouth, in particular, is raging most cruelly through herds and flocks unvaccinated in order to retain the questionably useful status of "FMD free without vaccination" It is extraordinary that in the 21st century with all its benefits of science, mass killing is the best "treatment" that can be used - particularly when not even this is effective in stopping the present spread of FMD. (see below)

May 11th 2010 ~ Could this paper be heralding the breakthough to sanity on foot and mouth?

A draft policy paper, (SANCO/7070/2010 Working Document) "Vaccine and/or diagnostic banks for major animal diseases: strategic planning options for emergency situations or major crises" has been prepared for the EU Commission, on the subject of emergency control of such diseases as foot and mouth, African Horse Disease (see today's posting), Bluetongue, Classical Swine Fever and avian influenza by a group of experts. It is "for information and consultation purposes only" and cannot yet be assumed to reflect any policy to be adopted. Nevertheless, the expert advice it contains must surely be regarded as hopeful, especially in the light of the worsening FMD situation in Japan and Korea and the huge steps forward in diagnostic tools and effective vaccines that have been made in recent years. The "Key Messages" alone, which conclude:
" Vaccination and testing should replace unnecessary culling"
express the good sense for which we have been waiting for nearly a decade. The authors carefully consider the financial aspect of their advice,
"If there is no vaccine against an emerging disease and there is no existing market for such a vaccine, there is no such incentive. For such emerging diseases, public funding is recommended for vaccine development, along with a commitment for an antigen/ vaccine bank linked to this funding."
Their advice is that since "relevant legislation regarding veterinary medicinal products is not well suited to approving the use of vaccines in emergency situations", the current review regarding legislation dealing with veterinary medicinal products would be an ideal opportunity to "introduce a mechanism for approving vaccines for emergency use at European level.."

May 11th 2010 ~ vaccination has to be seen in a new light, directly linked to the availability of effective diagnostic tools

"Emergency vaccination has to be seen in a new light, directly linked to the availability of effective diagnostic tools substantiating that vaccinated animals or the meat and meat products obtained from vaccinated animals are free from pathogens and can be traded safely..."The draft document continues:
"That is why it is necessary to discuss the availability and quality of diagnostic tests when discussing vaccines. Furthermore, the issue of EU vaccine banks can only be treated in the context of a specific vaccination strategy for each major disease (e.g. FMD, CSF, AI). The establishment and maintenance of vaccine and diagnostic banks must be part of a strategic plan prepared during 'peace time', ready for an emergency..."
The group's recommendations for particular vaccine and diagnostic banks for Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) can be seen here

May 3rd 2010 ~ Foot and Mouth disease on the move - endemic or established across four continents now

China, Japan and Korea's simultaneous outbreaks of foot and mouth disease must surely make us, as the FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth suggests, reconsider FMD policy. The Asian response, in addition to great alarm, is to massacre animals in a vain hope of stopping spread. The virus, however, is on the move. According to www.weeklytimesnow.com.au
"At least 11 countries have had FMD outbreaks in the past 16 months alone with the disease endemic or established across four continents"
The threat to Australia and to Europe is as great as it has ever been. The EU's non-vaccination policy of 1991 to which we clung in 2001 and 2007 is looking increasingly unwise. Ever greater numbers of animals are being transported between, into and out of countries within Europe. Because EU animals are not vaccinated, all herds and flocks are susceptible and vulnerable to the diseases that may be unwittingly (or even deliberately) introduced. In an outbreak, healthy animals, including breeding stock, pregnant animals, young at foot and even pets, are killed in their thousands so that unrestricted export of the EU's surpluses can be retained.
The Report of the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (adopted 10 March 1999) contained in paragraph 3.1 The rationale for using emergency vaccination for foot and mouth disease That was ten years ago - and we are still waiting for the good sense outlined there to be recognised and acted upon.

May 3rd 2010 ~ "FMD free without vaccination" status comes at a heavy price

The virus that causes FMD in livestock is not infectious to man - and as ProMed pointed out,
FMD is "a fatal disease only in reference to offspring (very young animals)... In adult animals.. mortality will rarely exceed 5 percent.."
It is the policy itself that has the power to wipe out entire herds and flocks and leave the rural population shaken and distressed.
Nine years ago, the journal Veterinary Sciences Tomorrow pointed out the unfairness to the developing world's farmers of the protectionist "FMD free without vaccination" status. The Dutch author, G. Henk Wentink, even made a connection between the EU's non-vaccination policy and illegal immigration.
"...surpluses are sold with considerable financial support from the EU (through subsidies), leaving farmers in developing countries little chance to compete - a situation that has contributed to the many African, Central Asian and South American immigrants trying to enter illegally into Western countries."
This quotation from a Dutch entertainer puts the situation in perspective:
"If you were to make a pile of all the healthy animals killed simply to limit the spread of infectious diseases that are no threat to human health, you would have a mountain so high that from its top you would see people in Africa dying of starvation"

April 28th 2010 ~ " ..a possible replay of the disastrous 2001 FMD epidemic.. a review of preventive measures and response capacity would be welcome." FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth

Could this possibly - and at long last - lead to a reappraisal both of vaccination as the first tool of control and protection, and of proper rapid diagnostic methods on site? As we say below FMD is "a fatal disease only in reference to offspring (very young animals)... In adult animals.. mortality will rarely exceed 5 percent, .. ." - yet S.Korea and Japan - and Europe, of course - ignore vaccination and kill all animals in order to protect their trade benefits - financial benefits that are looking increasingly risky and scientifically unsound. While acknowledging that vaccines are used routinely in many countries, the OIE's rationale for the non-use of vaccines at no point suggests that they don't work -concentrating instead merely on cost. Ironically, Lubroth says (see FAO website today) , "Even one small outbreak in a previously FMD-free country can cause millions of dollars of losses as global markets close and disease control measures are enforced," adding
"Under the circumstances we consider that all countries are at risk and a review of preventive measures and response capacity would be welcome."
The costs of not vaccinating are perhaps clearer now. We can only hope - as, on this website, we have been hoping for the past long decade since the scenes of utter misery and chaos in the British countryside.

April 28th 2010 ~ "recent, large-scale weight of infection in source areas, very probably in the Far East."

In the past nine years, incursions into officially FMD-free countries have been extremely rare but now, a "serious cause for concern" in the words of Juan Lubroth, are the increasing foot and mouth threats which have happened even with the most rigorous biosecurity measures in place. He suggests this is due to a
"recent, large-scale weight of infection in source areas ..."
(The FAO website gives the usual underestimate of livestock losses in the UK in 2001 - see the true figures that were reluctantly and quietly accepted by DEFRA, it seems.)

April 25th 2010 ~ "Has anyone flown into the UK from South Korea recently?"

We see from news.xinhuanet.com that in South Korea more suspected FMD cases have been found in two cattle farms in Chungju, North Chungchong Provice, near a pig farm where a case of FMD was confirmed on Thursday.
An email from Lesley Prior, the sheep and goat farmer in Devon (where, she says, " we have long memories and no confidence in DEFRA or the UK Border Authorities") asks:
" I can almost guarantee that there will be NO foot dip or disinfection facilities at the barriers as the plane lands and no extra checks on what passengers are bringing in. The UK border authorities are absolutely appalling. If this was the US all S Korean flights would be treated like absolute pariahs. We are one world now and disease no longer has boundaries!"
Can anyone - please - reassure us on this point?

April 24th 2010 ~ Foot and Mouth continues to spread in South Korea - in spite of mass culling

For ten years this website has deplored the OIE rules that confer the coveted trade export status of "FMD without vaccination" on countries that agree not to protect susceptible animals with FMD vaccines. In the past this was because there were genuine fears that vaccinated animals or animal products might hide the disease. Since posting our vaccination page we have not received any message from any reputable scientific source to refute it. (Were we to do so we should be happy to listen.)
South Korea's current policy of vicious culling to try to stop the spread of FMD is not working - indeed things are getting far worse. ProMed today says
"... there is an implication here that a single or multiple serotypes causing disease is spreading further in the country despite the rigorous control measures being applied to stamp out the disease. Of further note, is that these series of reports are affecting multiple animal species including swine, dairy cattle, and goats.."
In January, ProMed pointed out that FMD is "a fatal disease only in reference to offspring (very young animals), where the fatality rate may at times (and with certain virus strains) exceed 50 percent. In adult animals.. mortality will rarely exceed 5 percent, .. ."
ProMed in January explained that
"S.Korea still refrains from vaccinating in order to regain at the earliest date its FMD-free status, officially recognised by the OIE, and consequently be able to renew exports as soon as the outbreak is eradicated and the country declared free of FMD."
The vaccination section of the OIE question and answer pdf file may strike readers as questionable since many "questions" are not in fact given adequate answers. While acknowledging that vaccines are used routinely in many countries, the OIE's rationale for the non-use of vaccines at no point suggests that they don't work and concentrate merely on the cost.

April 21st 2010 ~ South Korea - an outbreak has spread to the mainland from an island west of Seoul despite a mass cull

Independent: ".... Gimpo is a mainland region linked by a bridge to the island, where five cases have been reported since the disease was first detected on April 9.
Gimpo officials said Tuesday they immediately culled 194 cattle at the infected farm and three nearby farms, banning the movement of all 74,294 hoofed cloven animals at 362 farms within a radius of 10 kilometres.
Authorities already culled some 30,000 animals at 227 farms on Ganghwa to limit the spread ..."

April 19th 2010 ~ "Getting the exact vaccine right following an outbreak is very, very important..."

More on the Australian symposium from an ABC broadcast. David Palmer of the Meat and Livestock organisation of Australia is quoted: "... some of the work we're seeing here today coming out of Pirbright in the United Kingdom gives us great confidence that the rapid turnaround in a vaccine development to suit a particular outbreak wherever it might be is a good investment and one that we're pleased to be part of." Read transcript in full

April 15th 2010 ~ Foot and Mouth symposium in Australia: "...better use of technology ... vaccination as a preferable FMD control strategy."

The international FMD symposium in Melbourne, which concludes tomorrow, remembers vividly what happened in the UK in those grim months of 2001. Australia's Weekly Times quotes Peter Milne, a member of the board of the Cattle Council of Australia. He said the 2001 UK outbreak had been
"a catalyst for action in Australia and the development of a national plan"
David Palmer, the managing director of Meat and Livestock Australia, said the $5 million FMD Preparedness Program (see below) would better prepare Australia to respond effectively to an outbreak. Mr Palmer said:
"Community concerns will demand better use of technology to minimise any livestock destruction as the main source of control in such an event. Vaccines, animal traceability, improved modelling and the use of sophisticated diagnostics underpin an effective and efficient response to FMD. This project will deliver the necessary science on vaccination as a preferable FMD control strategy, and develop the necessary protocols."

April 12th 2010 ~ Australian scientists will spend 5 million researching vaccines for use in Australian livestock, "better preparing the industry in case there's a domestic outbreak"

Australian scientists will spend 5 million AU dollars on this research in countries such as South Africa, Argentina and Vietnam. Australia's Deputy chief executive of Animal Health, Ian Denney, Australia's Deputy chief executive of Animal Health, was quoted recently in an article about the symposium on FMD this month. He recently wrote that:
"Vaccination is increasingly seen as an important tool ..despite the theoretically longer disruption to trade that may occur... The important question is how, and under what circumstances exactly, vaccines should be used."
In November last year Victoria staged a "vaccinating to live" exercise "DIVA '09" referred to the DIVA test to distinguish between positive test results found in infected and vaccinated animals developed by Australia's Janine Muller described here as "inexpensive" and not requiring infectious virus to produce the reagents. Victoria's DPI (Department of Primary Industries) chief veterinary officer, Hugh Millar, memorably remarked that "the devastating impact of the FMD outbreak in the UK during 2001 forced a global rethink about how to best deal with the disease". Yet we see now that in South Korea the government is announcing a mass cull of farm animals

April 12th 2010 ~ Will the UK follow the Dutch example on Foot and Mouth?

The UK contingency plan continues to prevaricate about vaccination. The Dutch contingency plan for FMD now specifies the use of vaccination or marker vaccination in a radius of 2km around a source herd. The conclusion of the 160 page report from the Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen University is that:
"A quick and large-scale vaccination within a radius of at least 2km is as effective as preemptive 1-km ring culling to mitigate FMD epidemics..."
Veterinary and scientific arguments are easily lost when protectionist rules about FMD vaccinated meat and products persist. The Dutch report urges:
"Market acceptance by the trade partners of products originating from vaccinated animals might cushion the economic effects of an epidemic. An integrated effort of the government and the livestock industry to limit the consequences of an epidemic of FMD to inform the trade partners about the Dutch approach to fight the disease is needed." .
Dutch farmers and vets were appalled in 2001 when, after they had agreed to a vaccinate to live policy, their government slaughtered the vaccinates after all for purely economic reasons. Dr Peter Poll from Utrecht told us in 2001 that Holland's vets were unlikely ever to cooperate in a FMD slaughter policy again. He said, "Why, oh why are we all so frightened of opposing Brussels?" He went on to urge the unions to oppose the restrictive and senseless EU rules that have caused us all such misery..."They are not written on tablets of stone!"

January 25 2010 ~ The Dutch contingency plan for FMD now specifies the use of vaccination

Unlike the UK plan, the Dutch contingency plan for FMD now specifies the use of vaccination or marker vaccination in a radius of 2km around a source herd. "Vaccination against Foot-and-Mouth Disease; Differentiating strategies and their epidemiological and economic consequences" is a 160 page report from the Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen University which examined different control strategies. The conclusion was that:
"A quick and large-scale vaccination within a radius of at least 2km is as effective as preemptive 1-km ring culling to mitigate FMD epidemics. Control measures should primarily target cattle farms. After the epidemic, most seropositive animals are expected on sheep farms and vaccinated cattle farms. An effective end-screening strategy should focus on these farms."
As we say below in connection to the Australian debate, the veterinary and scientific arguments are easily lost when protectionist rules about FMD vaccinated meat and products are taken as set in stone. This is why it is encouraging to read in the Dutch report:
"Market acceptance by the trade partners of products originating from vaccinated animals might cushion the economic effects of an epidemic. An integrated effort of the government and the livestock industry to limit the consequences of an epidemic of FMD to inform the trade partners about the Dutch approach to fight the disease is needed." .
(The report is also here. Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for the link to this story from VetsWeb.com)

January 25th 2010 ~ FMD "vaccination in the event of an outbreak is becoming the more popular policy..." Australia's Deputy chief executive of Animal Health

Ian Denney, Australia's Deputy chief executive of Animal Health, is quoted today in www.abc.net.au in an article about the symposium on FMD that will take place in Australia in April. Ian Denney recently wrote in an industry article that:
"Vaccination is increasingly seen as an important tool in a possible response, despite the theoretically longer disruption to trade that may occur. The difficulty for Australian policy makers and their veterinary advisers is that there are still a great many unknowns about the FMD virus, the vaccines and how best to utilise them in a response. The important question is how, and under what circumstances exactly, vaccines should be used."
It may be remembered that in November last year Victoria staged a "vaccinating to live" exercise to test the strategy of keeping animals alive that might have previously tested positive as a result of vaccination. "DIVA '09" referred to the DIVA test to distinguish between positive test results found in infected and vaccinated animals developed by Australia's Janine Muller described here as "inexpensive" and not requiring infectious virus to produce the reagents. (Not surprisingly, there are concerns in Australia about bringing in live virus for research - concerns that Ian Denney dismisses: "There's not a push within the livestock research industry to bring a live FMD virus into Australia for scientific purposes," he says.) Victoria's DPI (Department of Primary Industries) chief veterinary officer, Hugh Millar, memorably remarked that "the devastating impact of the FMD outbreak in the UK during 2001 forced a global rethink about how to best deal with the disease".

January 25 2010 ~ An FMD death toll of 11 million animals was the estimate given by the UK's Meat and Livestock Commission after the 2001 outbreak

Dr Hugh Millar, mentioned above, said in November:
"In the UK the outbreak dragged on for 36 weeks at a total economic cost of US$10 billion. In total, more than 5.7 million animals were slaughtered. In contrast, Uruguay, with similar stock numbers, embarked on a mass vaccination program and was able to halt their FMD outbreak in 18 weeks, with less than 7000 animals slaughtered, for an economic loss estimated at US$400 million."
Dr Millar underestimated by nearly 5 million the number in total of animals killed as a result of the UK's policy. (See also our pages on Uruguay 2001 and FMD page) It is encouraging that Australia, at least, is aware of how successfully the Uruguay outbreak was contained. The veterinary and scientific arguments are unanswerable. But, as Ian Denney says above, the problem is " the theoretically longer disruption to trade that may occur". As this website has been saying for nine years, it is this unhelpful and unscientifically-based protectionism that needs to be addressed.

December 14 2009 ~ Slaughter on Suspicion policy - on it goes

We have been reminded by a baffled emailer that DEFRA's Framework Response Contingency Plan still appears to make no mention at all of on-site rapid diagnostic testing for Foot and Mouth disease. In what DEFRA refers to as an AMBER situation "suspect animal(s)/birds showing lesions are culled" without benefit of testing even when "Lesions and clinical disease" are "suggestive of the notifiable disease but not entirely convincing." The sending of samples to and from Pirbright and the wait for results is thought to take too long to allow the animals with "not entirely convincing" clinical signs to live, so they must "culled on suspicion as a preventative measure under the slaughter on suspicion policy".
As we have said so many times before, on-site, accurate, diagnostic tests have been available for use for nearly a decade and can deliver results, there on the farm, in well under an hour. Why on earth not use them?
One is utterly at a loss to understand why officialdom cannot feel grateful for the blessings of modern technology in the case of Foot and Mouth disease; rapid, on-site testing quickly confirms or dispels initial visual diagnosis.
As our correspondent says, it is impossible to comprehend why there has been so little progress in nearly nine long years.

Sept 16 2009 ~ What actually constitutes a Foot and Mouth outbreak?

Although, during a check for bluetongue in Cyprus in 2007, FMD seropositive sheep and goats were found on ten flocks in a geographic cluster, there were no pigs or cattle found to be seropositive nearby. This was very strange. As the abstract of a new paper by David Paton et al: "Investigations into the Cause of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Seropositive Small Ruminants in Cyprus During 2007" explains:
"...FMD had not been recorded in Cyprus since 1964 ... no vaccination programme since 1984. Since all the seropositive animals were at least 3 years old and home-bred, it was concluded that infection had occurred approximately 3 years previously had passed un-noticed and died out spontaneously."
The abstract concludes with two very important sentences:
" It therefore appears that antibodies to FMD virus NS proteins can still be detected around 3 years after infection of small ruminants, but that virus carriers cannot be detected at this time. This unusual situation of finding evidence of historical infection in a FMD-free country caused considerable disruption and alarm and posed questions about the definition of what constitutes a FMD outbreak."
The "considerable disruption and alarm" were indeed serious and upsetting as we recorded at the time in dated entries from October to December 2007. The ProMed moderator's concerns in November are quoted
"....This strange event has been characterised by EU-dictated cullings and other control measures; convincing evidence for a circulating virus is still lacking."
There was no virus circulating but the EU, insisting on its own definition of what constitutes an outbreak, caused 2000 animals to be killed - to the deep distress of the farmers concerned. One wonders if any lessons have yet been learned at EU level from the Cyprus story. It is to be hoped that the new paper raises serious questions - and initiates science-based answers.

August 28 2009 ~ "Vaccinate to live" policy for Foot and Mouth is trialled in Australia's current "Exercise Diva"

A great breakthrough is being made in the current FMD exercise being carried out in Victoria, Australia. "DIVA '09" is trialling a vaccinate-to-live operational policy, as well as develop and test a comprehensive communication strategy. Their "cutting-edge" software, using GPS, takes into account farm boundaries, agricultural census and land-use information accurately to simulate a hypothetical outbreak. Recent exercises and contingency plans in the UK and US have continued to downplay vaccination and diagnosis - but in Australia, Dr Hugh Millar, the Department of Primary Industry's Biosecurity Executive Director is quoted here as saying that although culling used to be "the first and only option to stop the disease spreading" times have changed:
"..For the first time in Australia, this exercise will look at "vaccinating to live", a strategy that promotes vaccination rather than pre-emptive slaughtering of animals at direct risk from the disease. ..to keep animals alive that may have previously tested positive as a result of vaccination...."
The new technology he refers to is presumably the new DIVA test to distinguish between positive test results found in infected and vaccinated animals developed by Australia's Janine Muller last year, described here in 2008 as "inexpensive" and not requiring infectious virus to produce the reagents.
(One wonders why the oddly misleading reporting of the similar Danish research last week appeared on sites such as FMD News at UC Davis and The Cattle Site without comment . Although it is good news that the Danes are successfully carrying out work on NSP antibody detection to indicate FMD infection, the report failed to mention that differentiating tests have made far greater progress in other parts of the world than the journalist concerned seemed to realise.)
More detail about Victoria's Exercise DIVA can be seen here.

August 1 2009 ~ Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, is urged to "revisit the decision to phase out Plum Island"

The GAO study says, "Given the significant limitations in DHS's analyses that we found, the conclusion that FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease) work can be done as safely on the mainland as on Plum Island is not supported." www.newsday.com quotes congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) who has written to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: "This study underscores the validity of why Plum Island was originally chosen. I'm sobered by this report."
A Homeland Security spokesman did not return a call for comment. Read in full
See also the warmwell page (new window) updated since May 2008 on the concern felt at moving the US National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility from Plum Island.

July 27 2009 ~ Professor Roy Anderson's "clear conflict of interest"

The NHS signed contracts earlier this year with pharmaceutical companies Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Relenza, bringing the UK's total capacity to 33.5 million treatment courses. Concerns about links between advisory committees, pharmaceutical companies and research grants have been voiced for many years now (According to the Guardian in September 2001, it was Nestlé not the NFU, that persuaded Tony Blair to halt the already advanced foot and mouth vaccination preparations.) As for advisory committees, it was in 2003, that Michael Meacher told The Observer:
".. I constantly argued that nobody with significant commercial links should be allowed to sit on these bodies. It is vital they are truly independent."
Professor Roy Anderson's links with industry are well known - and we learn from today's Mail that the egregious Professor has been asked to step down from "SAGE", the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, because of his financial association with GlaxoSmithKline. In May, he was interviewed on the Today programme and called for the distribution of anti flu drugs "we have two effective anti-viral drugs.." - but there was no mention of the fact that he receives annual payments from GlaxoSmithKline. He earned £116,000 at GSK last year.
The danger of the overuse of antivirals - as we were warned below - is that it actually can bring about a drug resistant strain of the virus - and a far more serious situation than the present one.

July 27 2009 ~ The Department of Homeland Security "relied on a rushed, flawed study" to move FMD research from Plum Island to Kansas, says the GAO

The Washington Post today reveals that the Government Accountability Office's study says that the US Department of Homeland Security's analysis was not "scientifically defensible". In its draft report, the GAO, the congressional watchdog, says that the DHS's review was too "limited" and "inadequate" to decide that any mainland labs were safe, adding that the agency's assessment of the risk of accidental release of toxins on mainland locations, including Kansas, was based on "unrepresentative accident scenarios," "outdated modeling" and "inadequate" information about the sites. UPDATE A Kansas farmer writes to warmwell.com today that the real livestock producers of Kansas were never given much opportunity to make known their own concerns to the Governor's Task Force:"..in fact, they were purposefully omitted from that group..." (read in full)
July 28 2009 ~ Google news results for today's news items on this subject.

July 6 2009 ~ FMD conference in Paraguay ".... the global control of this high-impact disease....an international priority"

The OIE published its 20 final recommendations today. Read in full at www.oie.int. These include:
• "economic and social justification for recognizing global control and eventual eradication of FMD as a global public good"
• strategy should be regarded as an international priority
• Further research on the development of effective and quality vaccines,
• the establishment of vaccine banks for FMD vaccines in strategic locations and in support of regional FMD control programs ..
• quick and efficient diagnosis of FMD be further enhanced,
• strengthened cooperation for national, regional and global surveillance systems for FMD.
• Transparency and timely disease reporting .
Read in full and see also Dr Bernard Vallat's words at the Paraguay conference where he said that "FMD has a domino effect over food security given the world shortage of proteins of animal origin that can be found in produce such as meat and milk. Only an effective immunization can avoid having to sacrifice the infected cattle."

June 29 2009 ~ FMD: "Only an effective immunization can avoid having to sacrifice the infected cattle" Dr.Bernard Vallat in Paraguay

Bernard Vallat is quoted by mercopress.com
"FMD has a domino effect over food security given the world shortage of proteins of animal origin that can be found in produce such as meat and milk. Only an effective immunization can avoid having to sacrifice the infected cattle."
The stance of the EU which attaches grave trade penalties to FMD vaccination looks ever more out of step with the global efforts to eradicate this disease.The first World FMD congress in Asunción, Paraguay, which brought together over 300 experts from 174 OIE member countries, proposed emphasis on "vigilance, vaccination and specific diagnosis methods". Paraguay was particularly praised by the OIE Director General. Their 11.6 million cattle have been systematically vaccinated, monitored and since 2005 - and they are free of the disease.
(Interestingly, we note that a livestock website in Arkansas has chosen to use warmwell's vaccination page in its own quest to make FMD vaccination the policy for FMD control in the United States.)

June 25 2009 ~ the first time that "a conference has been organized to tackle the problem and ensure a global commitment to control FMD world wide"

Paraguay is hosting a global conference at which one hundred countries have sent their technical experts. It will propose the adoption of a common commitment towards the global elimination of FMD. See en.mercopress.com
"..During the three days conference...updated control methods of the disease, status of research on FMD, the application of disease surveillance methodologies; the application of and development of vaccines and the use, constraints and availability of diagnostic methods in susceptible species will all be assessed and evaluated against future needs and constraints..."
How optimistic this sounds - and one can only hope that real effective change can come about. In these days of increasing anxiety about global food security and the alleviation of poverty, surely protectionism should not be allowed to inhibit the worldwide attempt to leave the virus nowhere to go.

Thursday June 25 2009 ~ The EU to buy FMD antigens

Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link, in Spanish, that says that by 31 December of 2009 at the latest, the European Commission will buy inactive concentrates of FMD virus antigens...(Decision 2009/486/CE).
So, yet more supplies for the vaccine bank whose prophylactic use in Member States of the EU itself is still prevented by regulations whose only purpose appears to be to protect not animals but trade. One wonders if this attitde can possibly continue in the face of such efforts elsewhere to eradicate the disease - the purpose of the conference in Paraguay. The World Bank and the European Union will be providing funds to help eradicate the disease in poor countries (see link above). Yet FMD remains an ever-present risk in the EU..

June 23 2009 ~ Will the EU-27 Meeting in Luxemburg today make a difference?

Readers of this website may remember many postings about the distress caused both to animals and their owners when culling, often quite unnecessarily carried out, failed entirely to reduce stress and suffering. Scotland , after 2001, prided itself on having handled FMD better than its English counterparts, but it has been left to experts such as Dr Mike Thrusfield to point out, in relation to Dumfries and Galloway for example, that "No evidence of infection was found on any pre-emptively contiguously culled premises" Indeed, in the entire country, fewer than 1500 of 2030 so-called infected premises (IPs) were confirmed as being infected on laboratory results. This letter in the Vet Record by Adrian Wingfield, Hugh Miller, and Nick Honhold explained with authority that much culling had been unnecessary. (Their own papers are referred to in the pdf version of the letter)
October 2006: The Scotsman,
"....much research into data accumulated in 2001 has been published, including the work of Dr Michael Thrusfield at Edinburgh University and Dr Paul Kitching at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases in Canada. Their work confirms that the 2001 epidemic was handled in an impractical, unscientific and inhumane way. In the words of the late Professor Fred Brown, it was "a disgrace to humanity"..."
Slaughter as a political quick fix for animal disease is still very much in evidence - and unfortunately retrospective legitimacy given by the Animal Health Act of 2002 to the wider culling policies of 2001 gave even more power to central government.

Tuesday June 23 2009 ~ The Agricultural Ministers of EU-27, meet today in Luxemburg

They will debate animal welfare. One of the themes to debate in the meeting will be the animal culling procedures carried out as a consequence of diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease or avian influenza.
(Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link) Source (Spanish)

Saturday June 13 2009 ~ "The full cost of the foot-and-mouth epidemic has never been officially revealed..." Roseanna Cunningham

Some form of cost sharing is inevitable in view of the emptiness of the political purse. The Scottish environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, quoted by The Scotsman today, did not say - as long term readers of this website are aware - that the very high compensation (or more precisely 'compulsory purchase') in 2001 was partly to deter farmers from refusing to cooperate in a policy that was illegal.
(Before the 2002 Animal Health Act was rushed through to change it, killing untested, uninfected animals was actually against the law.) Many knew that their animals were uninfected and could see clearly that it was the unsound policy itself that was responsible for the scale of the mass culling. Some farmers - such as Guy Thomas Everard in Deven - put the value of their animals above what they were being offered as "compensation". They fought MAFF/DEFRA in the courts, and won. In doing so, Mr Everard saved not only his healthy pedigree animals but also saved the taxpayer from having to spend between £1.5- £2 million in so-called compensation. His evidence to the EU Committee still makes for very salutary reading even now, nearly eight years on.

June 3 2009 ~ "when there's a new outbreak of a serious virus in a remote area of Africa, it can take weeks for the information to reach the state veterinary services. Efforts to control the disease are hampered by this delay...."

Telegraph
"... the combination of new types of mobile phones combined with increasing availability of broadband internet access in Africa may help.. Locally trained veterinary assistants on the ground will be able to log suspected cases of new illnesses as they happen.....clear, real-time mapping of the spread of livestock diseases, so that vaccines and treatments can be targeted much more effectively."
Meanwhile, in the UK, while similar rapid disease mapping for livestock is still not in use and the rapid portable RT-PCR technology is still not being spoken about, a new form of disease mapping for pets has just been launched. CICADA-Live was launched on Monday by Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health as an interactive register of serious viral diseases of small companion animals.

May 21 2009 - "Vaccination - the foundation of prevention": Professor Albert Osterhaus on H1N1

ProMed quotes Professor Osterhaus (Head of Virology at the Erasumus Medical Centre in Rotterdam) in this posting of a forum thread at flutrackers (here).
Speaking at at Europe's largest conference on infectious diseases in Helsinki ( European Society of Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases) he said that
the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) is without question one of the most important events of the past 40 years in human influenza.
And he stressed that the current H1N1 threat is a serious one. He outlined the "3 cornerstones of medical preparedness in the face of swine-origin flu: Good surveillance and diagnostics; effective treatment/antiviral therapy; and vaccination, the foundation of prevention".
(WHO report 34 shows the global H1N1 flu total at 10,243, with 102 in the UK )

May 19 2009 ~ Journalists still making false assumptions about the cause of FMD 2001.

No official announcement about the cause of the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 has ever been made. Although it would have been convenient to blame Chinese food (an attempt was made), a stray ham sandwich or the conditions on the Bobby Waugh farm in Northumbria, no such cause was actually seriously accepted (the charges against Bobby Waugh specifically excluded his practices having been the cause of FMD) It is therefore worrying to read - as if it were fact - in today's edition of the Australian North Queensland Register
"Food scraps from a café fed to pigs in the United Kingdom in early 2001 caused the foot and mouth disease outbreak that resulted in the slaughter of 4 million animals on 9500 farms."
The FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, has already archived this article without comment but it is factually inaccurate, not only in its assumption about the origin but also in regard to the numbers killed (in excess of ten million in fact). Long standing foot and mouth lesions were being found in sheep nationally once the disease came to light, suggesting that FMD had been circulating quietly in sheep before the February outcry (Origins page). When lucrative trade in meat depends so much on a country's not having FMD, the temptation to avoid disclosure is very great - a dangerous state of affairs that should be changed. It now seems unlikely that the truth about the origins of 2001 FMD will ever come to light.

May 18 2009 ~"Resolved, That this House has considered the matter of swine flu."

The Secretary of State, Alan Johnson's oral statement on the 14th May
(Extract: "......We do not know enough about the virus yet. It is important to note that countries in the southern hemisphere are entering their flu season, which may mean that the disease gains a firmer global foothold during our summer period. Past flu pandemics in the UK have been light in the summer with an increase in cases in the winter. It is possible, therefore, that there will be a second wave of the virus in the autumn." Hansard
This was followed by quite a lengthy debate on the subject.

May 18 2009 ~ The "Territorial Army" to deal with Foot and Mouth?

We read in today's Independent that
"...The Commons Defence Committee expressed concern at the level of preparation for dealing with threats which had been identified to the UK's sea ports and other critical national infrastructure.... also urged the Ministry of Defence to make greater use of the Territorial Army in dealing with civil emergencies - like floods or foot and mouth - rather than always resorting to regular forces."
While one agrees that coordination and proper integrated planning is essential for the effective running of the country at times of civil emergencies, such a statement is looking back to the terrible days of 2001 when the army was brought in. The panicky, uncoordinated and unsound "kill on suspicion within a 3 km radius" policy meant they were asked to kill often perfectly healthy sheep, lambs, cows, calves, pigs and piglets and others - valuable breeding stock and even pets. The distress of some of these soldiers is documented.
Such a course should never, ever, be contemplated again in a civilised society.
Emergency vaccination and rapid on-site diagnostic advances mean that such scenes belong in the Dark Ages. Never mind "terror from the sea" - the disastrous policy of FMD 2001 was home-grown terror of a sort never to leave the imagination of those who had to witness it.

May 17 2009 ~ " It is anticipated that a license application for an FMD vaccine will be filed within a year."

GenVec Inc ".....Our lead vaccine candidate targets the prevention of a major animal health problem, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Development efforts for this program are supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is anticipated that a license application for an FMD vaccine will be filed within a year."

May 17 2009 ~ Every single one of the eight scientific expert witnesses to the EU inquiry in June 2002 said that vaccination must be used in any future outbreak

Robert Uhlig in the Telegraph reported this at the time. Unlike those experienced scientists however, the then government Chief Scientist, David King (now Sir David), went on defending the view that vaccination was not a practical option for controlling the disease. Yet even at the time
• tests to distinguish between vaccinated and infected animals were already being used in Turkey, in Bulgaria, in Macedonia, and in Albania for several years before 2001 and cost very little.
• Vaccines against foot and mouth were fully effective in 2001 and sufficient supplies of the correct strain were available at the time of the outbreak.
• Unlike in 2001, no one now pretends there is any risk whatever involved in the eating of products from vaccinated animals.
• (More updated information on the FMD vaccination page)
There is no sound scientific basis to a non vaccination policy. The legitimate concerns of meat producers could be solved at a stroke if the EU were successfully lobbied to change the outdated and unnecessary regulations about FMD vaccinated products. No public inquiry has ever properly corrected the misinformation put about at the time nor correctly examined the origins of the 2001 outbreak.

May 11 2009 ~ FAO plan to keep foot and mouth out of Europe

ABC Rural reports very briefly on a plan to stop Foot-and-Mouth disease spreading to Europe which has been agreed on by the FAO
"...14 Middle Eastern and West Asian countries including Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon are most affected ... The plan involves coordinating the different agencies and authorities which control the disease, to prevent it moving further west.... In Iraq, where the war has affected veterinary services, the Food and Agriculture Organisation is investing about $14 million to restore animal health programs."
It is hard to fathom how a continuing ban on vaccination within the EU can be justified - except on grounds of EU trade - when the FAO seeks to coordinate efforts, including vaccination, outside the borders. In effect these countries are vaccinating on the EU's behalf because the EU wants to preserve its privileged but scientifically unjustifiable position. And as we have seen, the losers in an outbreak here, apart from the hapless animals themselves, are livestock owners many of whom do not send live animals abroad and the entire rural community.

May 11 2009 ~ Rapid RT-PCR test kits now being used all across America to differentiate flu virus strain

In America, confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, although mild, are nevertheless multiplying. (WHO update 24 puts US cases at 2254 but has still not updated UK figures.)
RT-PCR kits, determining what kind of virus the patient has within two to three hours, are now being used in all 50 states - ironically, without the official approval that has caused such delay in the field of animal health. Bloomberg reported last week that : "Laboratories.... are receiving test kits from the CDC to look for the markers of swine flu."
An email from the US asks warmwell: "They're not waiting for official approval before using the kits here. What's happening in the UK?"
Does anyone know? Informed comment gratefully received by email.
More on rapid diagnostic kits
BBC today "...the Health Protection Agency stressed that because of the time taken to diagnose swine flu, all 10 newly-confirmed patients may already have recovered and be symptom-free."

May 6 2009 ~ Jane Kennedy: "this isolated, short-term trial involving wild boar took place at a time when foot and mouth ..and other exotic diseases were not present in Great Britain"

Mark Harper asked what precautions the Food and Environment Research Agency have put in place "to prevent the spread of disease among wild boar populations which are fed meat." (Hansard May 5.) Jane Kennedy replied:
" ...Although the feeding of animal by-products to animals is a potential route of transmission...this isolated, short-term trial involving wild boar took place at a time when foot and mouth disease (FMD) and other exotic diseases were not present in GB. As such, DEFRA is confident that this particular activity did not increase the risk of introducing FMD or other exotic disease..."
One might wonder, given DEFRA's confidence that feeding meat carries no disease risk at all at a time when FMD is not present, why the feeding of meat is "not sanctioned in farming or domestic feeding practice" at such times. The deliberate feeding of meat happened in January - although other non- meat delicacies could have been created without the Foresters getting so alarmed and angry at what they saw as dual standards of safety.
The research, it seems, aims to test "a species-specific method for delivering a contraceptive to wild boar"(see DEFRA statement below) However, we are reliably informed that no hormonal contraceptive or pituitary releasing hormone yet exists that is species specific - so there may well be a risk of affecting the mixed mammalian species within the Forest of Dean. How the different dosage to which they will be exposed will affect the individual boar or any other species is unknown.

May 6 2009 ~ "Frighteningly absurd"..... "meat should never ever have been included in the trial. It should never have been considered as a possibility"

One emailer writing of the wild boar experiment in the Forest of Dean is unequivocal:
What seems particularly illogical is that they were looking at different alternatives for their contraceptive bait, which means they were considring that meat could be a viable medium for the bait.
But meat should never ever have been included in the trial. It should never have been considered as a possibility.
Apart from the obvious Animal By-Product regulations and the concerns on which they were based, there would be no guarantee that regular baiting with meat either in trial conditions or in the field could be safe. What would the safeguards be?
The whole thing is frighteningly absurd. It would be interesting to know the names of the scientists involved in this silly and dangerous experiment."

May 6 2009 ~ "One World, One Health" said the OIE in January....but global sickness looks ever more likely

Bernard Vallat in his OIE editorial says,
"The new concept, "One World, One Health", has recently appeared, indicating that the world has suddenly woken up to the link between animal diseases and public health. And about time too! ...
....We can only hope that the discussions currently taking place on the concept "One World, One Health" will eventually lead all countries to give a firm commitment to making their animal health situation transparent and setting up mechanisms for the early detection of disease outbreaks..."
It is alarming to see a new strain of Foot and Mouth disease in Iraq that may well be impervious to present vaccines ( Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this worrying link) UPDATE Ruth Watkins writes that "there are one or two new FMD serotypes emerging possibly from India and Pakistan, with multiple infections and carriage of FMD in buffalo and other bovines, from complex recombinations and rearrangements of the FMD RNA genome and these have been emerging in Iraq and Iran. It is not surprising that such events take place, and not particularly onerous to make a new vaccine to a new serotype if required using the tried and tested methods."

May 6 2009 ~ How right was Professor Fred Brown when he advised years ago that FMD could be eradicated if there were a global policy.

It does seem that until countries cooperate with their technologies and expertise for both human and animal health (rather than use animal health as a basis for protectionism or a political weapon) we are in ever increasing danger from virus mutation. As for rapid and on-site diagnosis, our attention has been drawn to an academic paper that oddly claimed that in 2007 "For the first time, real-time RT-PCR results were used to recognize preclinical FMD in a cattle herd". This is simply not true - as our page on rapid diagnosis will clearly show.

May 5 2009 ~ Between June 24-26, 2009 the first World Congress for the Eradication of FMD, will be held in Paraguay.

More than 150 scientists and 600 participants from around the world will be attending. (Source in Spanish) Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for this link)

May 1 2009 ~ "The Department of Defense can fast track a reagent within hours for use in hand held satellite linked PCR device..."

On the subject of the inability of states to conduct on site testing for pandemic H1N1, Stephen M. Apatow, Founder, Director of Research and Development Pathobiologics International, has written a memo mentioning the rapid diagnostic kit by which the Department of Defense can fast track a reagent within hours.
"This molecular diagnostics technology has existed for years but has not yet reached the grassroots physician/veterinarian level."
Without validated tests, he says, there is a wait of 2-3 days because samples need to be shipped to the CDC lab in Atlanta. He calls this "a public health infrastructure disgrace" He recalls in the midst of a previous WHO pandemic level 5 scenario,
"..Roger Breeze did the PCR presentation at this meeting and my paper "Agricultural Security and Emergency Preparedness: Protecting One of America's Infrastructures" was a reference point for agricultural security. .."
Link to Humanitarian Resources Institute memo.

May 1 2009 ~ Rapid diagnostic test: "this identifies the current H1 and future changes in that target that have not yet evolved"

Meanwhile, Dr Breeze has given warmwell.com permission to quote from a letter whose subject concerns the ability of the TessArray® RPM-Flu assay to detect the current H1N1 flu accurately and fast. Dr Breeze comments:
"This technology provides the actual sequence of up to 1500 bases of the nucelic acid target so if the H1 target mutates this test tells you the mutation directly. It is biosafety level 2 and does not require Biosafety level 3 containment because no virus is grown."
Extracts from the letter The language is highly technical - but we read that TessArae makes the following offer to recipients of the letter:
"If you want to analyze clinical specimens with suspected 2009 outbreak swine flu, we are available to support your use of the TessArray RPM-Flu 3.1 assay.
If you are willing and able to share your assay results with the community, then we are willing to replace a few of your TessArray RPM-Flu 3.1 assay kits at no charge."
The key point - as Roger Breeze makes clear- is that this rapid diagnosis kit "identifies the current H1 and future changes in that target that have not yet evolved."

April 29 2009 ~ H1N1: "What one would like to see is a professional and independent analysis of the methodologies currently being used, as well as methodologies that could be used but aren't."

Always aware of how sadly little integrated the controls for human and animal disease still are (it was in an article for warmwell.com in 2003 that Dr Ruth Watkins deplored the failure to apply methods in human medicine to the care of farm animals when on genetic analysis they are so similar), we note with interest this second H1N1 flu article from James Irvine's LandCare website. Wondering how long will be the wait for promised H1N1 test results he wrote,
" As in all outbreaks of viral diseases - be they in livestock or humans - speed and accuracy of diagnosis is of the utmost importance....Where are these tests being done, by whom and using what technologies?"
The public, "widely informed regarding the utilisation - or non-utilisation - of modern scientific advances" are aware of "the control - or lack of control - of the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease UK 2001"
Is today's underfunded Pirbright ("at least partially responsible for the most recent Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the UK," he says) really able to contribute to " the management of the present impending crisis? Or is it still resisting the better integration between human and animal disease control in the field of virology?"

April 28 2009 ~ "For the first time ever, we are on the threshold of being able to stop a pandemic "

Delegates at the Biocontainment, biosafety, and biosecurity conference in London were told that de-centralisation and speed are needed to produce emergency vaccines but the rapid manufacture of vaccines to fight pandemics is hampered because "process design, building, and validating production facilities" can take so long. www.tcetoday.com quotes Peter Latham from consultancy BioPharm Services
"... There is no point producing it (vaccine) after the first or second wave of the pandemic. Rapid availability of vaccine is essential to preventing disaster. For the first time ever, we are on the threshold of being able to stop a pandemic..."
The answer suggested was single-use pre-qualified disposable units.
Case studies on the 2007 Foot and Mouth outbreak were looked at during the conference that ended today. We read too that "one of the keynote speakers (presumably Prof Nigel Lightfoot, the Chief Advisor to the Health Protection Agency) was called away to a Cabinet Office meeting to brief ministers on the UK's strategy for dealing with flu pandemics."
As the Snowmail email rather wisely says today, "Certainly, there is a contingency plan - but what's written down on paper may look less impressive in reality. The image of a calm, authoritative disaster response is seductive. But if the worst comes to the worst, a lot of controversial decisions will have to be made by a small number of people."

April 27 2009 ~ DEFRA's more "risk-based approach" to monitoring and enforcement..

It was pointed out in the Blogosphere this morning that the Budget Red Book reveals DEFRA's plan to cut £44 million from
"animal disease surveillance through a more risk-based approach to monitoring and enforcement and by sharing costs with industry"
(This is at the bottom of page 131 as part of DEFRA's £381 million savings plan. ) Would any reader care to comment on what might constitute the definition of a "more risk-based approach"?
One remembers the Department's risk-based approach of ignoring Pirbright's pleas for the updating of their facilities some time before the escape of the FMD virus in August 2007 and then the risk-based decision to kill inside and around farms rather than use available supplies of emergency vaccination. Many experts on the ground advised that it would prevent spread. (Instead, it will be recalled with gloom, infection reached the very edge of Windsor Great Park and caused enormous losses throughout the country.)
Defra's decision in February to break its funding commitment for Pirbright re-development risks a formerly first-class international reference laboratory committed to public service sinking even further into a commercial mire might be considered risk-based. And what is "risk-based enforcement"? Has anyone any idea? One would be grateful to know.

April 23/24 2009 ~ ARS, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security GenVec are now collaborating to develop the new FMD vaccine for inclusion in the U.S. Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile

News of the recent developments in vaccines and testing for foot and mouth have again (see April 3 posting below) been appearing in the US today - See Technology improves FMD detection and control , an article which tells its farming readers about the infrared test that can detect "... potentially infected cattle in large groups, without examining animals individually." Mentioned too is Tetracore's test that can detect RNA from the FMD virus in less than two hours and the new vaccine developed by ARS chemist Marvin Grubman and his colleagues which can be produced without using infectious FMD materials.
Most encouraging of all is the news that "ARS, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and biopharmaceutical company GenVec, Inc., in Gaithersburg, Md., are now collaborating to develop the new FMD vaccine for inclusion in the U.S. Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile"
" - and are also working to combine the interferons and the FMD vaccine so they can be administered concurrently to provide almost immediate protection. "
If US advances with regard to vaccination and early diagnosis really mean a change from their mass slaughter policy, the EU's non-vaccination policy must surely change at last.

April 23 2009 ~ "The disease implications are frightening"

Wild Boar are primarily vegetarian and DEFRA's contraception project in the Forest of Dean, now apparently using meat, is causing concern both from a disease standpoint and the worry that these hitherto largely harmless animals may start looking for more meat by killing livestock. Dr Martin Goulding, an expert who has studied and written about wild boars in England, is quoted today by www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
: "The disease implications are frightening and it risks turning an animal which is primarily vegetarian onto meat as a food source with implications for livestock kills - boar are not normally interested in livestock but they sometimes will scavenge dead animals and road kill."
A spokesman from the Pig Veterinary Society is also quoted: "The principle of feeding meat or meat products to pigs is 100% discouraged. Diseases like Foot and Mouth can live in meat for years, so feeding it to pigs and other livestock could pose a tremendous risk of a further outbreak." (More)

April 23 2009 ~ DEFRA's baited offal for wild boar in the Forest of Dean

Since Foot and Mouth can be spread particularly rapidly by infected unvaccinated pigs, and since the UK (and EU) policy is that no susceptible animals are vaccinated in the UK, the increasing numbers of free roaming boar are of particular concern.
DEFRA and the Forestry Commission are carrying out trials - not to vaccinate against such diseases but to limit population growth. The chemical contraceptive GonaCon ^TM - a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) - is added to an offal bait that, it is hoped, only wild boar will eat (see www.britishwildboar.org.uk Its effect on other wildlife is not known.
An email received today from the Forest of Dean expresses concern about the possible effect of the hormone on humans particularly now that the Forestry Commission is to permit the stalking and culling of the Forest boar for sale as food. He is concerned about a possible decline in local human births. Wild boar are messy eaters and part of what they eat will inevitably find its way onto the forest floor making it available to non-target species. (See also BBC page on wild boar in Britain)

April 22 2009 ~ Now, more than ever before, one sees the good sense in insuring against disaster rather than expecting to be bailed out by the public purse

Insurance against livestock disease is the "obvious" answer - but as the NFU (see below) says, it fears that farmers will not be able to get cover from commercial insurers. Certainly commercial insurance companies are hardly likely to be falling over each other in their rush to give cover against diseases such as FMD when intensive farming methods coupled with global live movements and an EU non-vaccination policy can result in such heavy financial costs.
The welfare and social costs are just as great - and just as unnecessary. As professors David Campbell and Bob Lee wrote after the 2001 crisis,
".. if vaccination is not adopted, stamping out is again bound to decay into mass, cruel slaughter when the next major outbreak occurs."
Sure enough, in 2007, we saw vastly more animals killed on suspicion than were infected - and this in spite of the advice of experts on the spot - and vaccine of the perfect serotype being available at Pirbright (at the very centre of the outbreak).

April 22~ Farmers were told in 2001 and still believe the unscientific nonsense that it is impossible to sell vaccinated pedigree cattle..

..yet a test that discriminates FMD vaccinated cattle from those that were previously infected was invented in the US in 1994 - fifteen years ago - and such tests are marketed by several companies. Intervet's Checkit FMD-3ABC is endorsed and validated by Pirbright and a FMD vaccine is specifically designed to be used with that test.
The practice of responding to animal epidemics such as FMD by quarantine and mass slaughter of all the animals not only on the infected farms but also in the vicinity dates back to the Pope's physician in 1711 before the existence of viruses and bacteria was even suspected. Not surprisingly, many who deplore this are kept awake at the thought of another such animal holocaust in the UK when the current EU and UK policy is so outdated and so unsound.

22 April 2009 ~ NFU concerned that farmers might have to finance nine tenths of the cost of combatting an outbreak of a disease such as foot-and-mouth

The FWi reports that the NFU will fight DEFRA's responsibility and cost-sharing plans "despite conceding English livestock producers will have to accept more responsibility for animal health in future" NFU president Peter Kendall's words to the NFU Council meeting in Leamington Spa this week are quoted:
"This is one of the most ill-thought out consultations I've ever read. The costs are based on the value of output and not disease risk so there is a risk of pitting sectors against each other..."
As Mr Kendall pointed out, the "opposition parties" have given no indication that they wouldn't introduce cost sharing measures. "The government is looking to cut back on spending with at least £15 billion of cuts across departments already earmarked. The European Commission also expects cost sharing schemes to be in place by 2012 ..."
The reaction of the National Beef Association (NBA) to the Defra proposals for disease cost and responsibility sharing was reported below yesterday.

21/22 April 2009 ~ Changing conditions on pig farms

It was Alan Bennett, writing about the foot and mouth slaughter (Untold Stories p293) who said:
"In fifty years' time I am sure that we will not handle animals the way we do now - and to succeeding generations our behaviour will seem as barbarous as bear baiting...."
The British Pig Executive now insists the Quality Standard Mark label guarantees 'very high welfare'. Compassion in World Farming do not agree.
With tact, patience and understanding of the farming industry, CIWF quietly works for change. They want those who feel that pigs should be raised healthily to write to the EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and suggest possible wording for a plea for a new EU Regulation on meat labelling. It should require that labels show by what farming methods the pig was reared. (To send this takes rather less than one minute and could make a huge difference).

21/22 April 2009 ~ National Beef Association says NO to cost and responsibility sharing because the cost to farmers would be too great

The National Beef Association has rejected Defra proposals for disease cost and responsibility sharing Stackyard.com reports that the NBA :
" .. is the first organisation representing beef farmers to do so publicly and is hoping others will join with it and help to persuade government to adopt more suitable alternatives..."
The NBA proposes, as an alternative, a new drive to tackle the inefficiencies in Defra's current £400 million a year animal health budget. They consider that a continuation of the present core stakeholder group system would be more effective, and considerably cheaper, than DEFRA's proposed scheme.
The NBA committee considers that establishing a separate animal health board modelled on the FSA could well have better animal health results but the expense would be very great and that an unnecessary, ineffective, and inefficient tax on livestock keepers -just at the time when so many farmers are simply giving up under the pressure of costs and regulations - would be a great mistake.
The NBA want an independent audit, driven by farmers, into Defra's management of animal health. (Thanks to the FMD news service of the University of California, Davis, for the link)

April 16 2009 ~ Recent judgements in foot and mouth and TB compensation cases

See Farming UK :"....The only way of appealing this judgment is to petition the House of Lords, and I know the NFU is taking advice on this issue at present. These cases show the innate conservatism and establishment-mindedness of the judiciary, who are not willing to impose financial responsibilities on Government unless they have to as a last resort. It will be interesting to see if either case proceeds further up the appeals process and fares better if appealed. Tim Russ leads the agricultural team at Westcountry lawyers Clarke Willmott."

April 5/6 2009 ~ "real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues."

It is encouraging to see how many recent entries - those on the subject of UK policy about FMD vaccination and diagnosis - are finding their way onto the news section of the FMD Surveillance and Modeling Laboratory, University of California at Davis and are archived there.
All the same, the important thing to remember is nothing can happen in improving animal health policy in the UK until we have a body that has - in the words of Peter Kendall - "real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues."
Such a body needs independent experts of clout who can explain concisely and carefully the issues that have, for so long, been overriden by politics. Whether the appointed board envisaged by DEFRA in its desire to relieve itself of funding for its own policies can be the needed independent body is still somewhat in doubt. Certainly this seems to be the view of the latest Smith Institute report. (See cost sharing page)

April 5 2009 ~ "real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues."

In response to the paragraph below, Dutch expert, Christine Bijl, writes of warmwell.com, "I enjoy so much to see how active you still are" - while it is encouraging to see how many recent entries - those criticising the outdated science that still informs UK policy about FMD vaccination and diagnosis - are finding their way onto the news section of the FMD Surveillance and Modeling Laboratory, University of California at Davis and are archived there.
All the same, the important thing to remember is that however actively websites such as this draw attention to official ignorance about the epidemiological science and virology, nothing can happen in improving animal health policy in the UK until we have a body that has - in the words of Peter Kendall, "real powers..to deal with the European Commission on animal health issues." Such a body needs independent experts of such clout that they can explain concisely and carefully the issues that have, for so long, been overriden by protectionism masquerading as scientific justification. Whether the appointed board envisaged by DEFRA in its desire to relieve itself of funding for its own policies can be the needed independent body is still somewhat in doubt - certainly in the view of the latest Smith Institute report. (See cost sharing page)

April 3-5 2009 ~ "superior disease-outbreak response" tools against FMD

Eight years after the catastrophic UK outbreak it is extraordinary to read in a single ARS/USDA article news of three technologies "for superior disease-outbreak response" - all of which show how wholly out of date is mass slaughter policy against foot and mouth.
".. ARS-developed tools.. a rapid diagnostic test which can detect RNA from the FMD virus in less than 2 hours...laboratories throughout the United States could use the test to diagnose samples rapidly...
the world's first effective molecular-based FMD vaccine... can be produced without using infectious FMD materials, which means it can be produced safely, in the United States, without expensive, high-containment facilities..
...IRT cameras can identify at-risk cattle 48 hours before they begin to show any clinical symptoms... the hooves of healthy animals appear blue-green, whereas infected cattle have orange-red feet.. . "
Read News release in full. The article Foot and Mouth Disease Novel Technologies Improve Detection and Control appears as a pdf file in the Agricultural Research Magazine April 2009 - Vol. 57, No. 4

April 2 2009 ~ "...the current DEFRA Ministers are collectively rather better than many who have gone before.."

Having read today's posts about vaccination below, a much respected emailer, who thoroughly understands the science, writes,
"The answers provided by Defra civil servants to so many of the relatively simple written parliamentary questions must surely cause the Ministers to squirm with embarrassment when they deliver them. It is now well known that
1. Vaccination leaves no residues (unlike some antibiotics/parasiticides/other chemicals etc etc)
2. If we eat meat, we eat products from vaccinated animals
3. If we consume dairy products, we are consuming products from vaccinated animals
4. If we believe that a voluntary prophylactic vaccination scheme will produce adequate vaccination cover for bluetongue, a notifiable disease with considerable welfare implications, we need to see a psychiatrist
5. It would appear to be simplicity itself to get these messages across to the public and the industry."
The writer adds, "The current Ministers are collectively rather better than many who have gone before, so why don't they rise up and refuse to spout the garbage they are given to read out?"

April 2 2009 ~NOAH survey shows that fewer than one in ten people still believe that animals should be culled rather than vaccinated

(See National Office of Animal Health news release) And fear of vaccination among those few is probably caused by misinformation about vaccination - still going unchallenged and perhaps even encouraged by those for whom EU protectionism is profitable. Some continue to believe that eating vaccinated meat somehow involves 'chemicals'. In fact, vaccinated meat has not one trace of "vaccine" in it. The immune system, having responded to the jab, destroys the natural viral protein by biodegrading it - it can be likened to a wasp sting - the substance injected is biodegradable, indeed it is biodegraded by the very cells that form the immune (antibody) response. As we have written elsewhere, the logical conclusion of rejection of vaccination is the assumption that FMD infection is preferable. Ignorance about vaccination is precisely what allows the EU trade rules to persist. Even though the NOAH survey showed that less than one in ten believed that animals should be culled rather than vaccinated in an outbreak, one third were still worried that vaccines can be transferred into the food we eat. This is why NOAH's recommendation to improve understanding and acceptance among the public is so vitally important for the health of UK livestock.

April 2 2009 ~ DEFRA is not following up the NOAH survey on new public acceptance of farm animal vaccination

After the National Office for Animal Health conference in March The role of vaccination in animal health - future technology and societal acceptance, Phil Sketchley, the chief executive of NOAH, said:
"We need to thoroughly explore the role vaccination has to play in animal health and, most importantly, how we can best communicate with the public to improve understanding and acceptance of new technologies which protect both our livestock and ourselves as consumers." (see below)
It was thus very disappointing to read Jane Kennedy's answer to David Drew (Hansard) on March 27 which reveals that DEFRA is not interested in following up this vital communication and research exercise. One of the key planks of the justification for not vaccinating against FMD (foot and mouth disease) has been that the public won't buy vaccinated meat - a misconception never adequately put to rest in spite of the ever more widespread sale of meat from animals protected by vaccines. As far back as 2004, one of the objectives of DEFRA's own Emergency FMD Vaccination Project Board Foot-and-Mouth Disease Control Policy Communications Strategy was to be "assured that there is public acceptance that products from vaccinated animals are safe to consume". Unless, for motives unknown, DEFRA does not agree that informing the public about "new technologies which protect both our livestock and ourselves as consumers" is desirable, Jane Kennedy's answer seems very unfortunate.

March 26 2009 ~ Non-vaccinating EU facilitates Iraq's massive foot and mouth vaccination campaign

On March 13 the European Commission sent to Iraq a consignment of 500,000 doses of FMD vaccine, from the stocks stored in the European Community antigen bank as a contribution towards their vaccination campaign. Today we read in the FMD news service (University of California, Davis) that the intense FMD vaccination campaign that is currently being conducted will continue for an "indefinite period of time".
The vaccine, sent at the request of EuFMD, arrived in Iraq ten days ago "in order to control the current outbreaks".
The irony may occur to some that justification given for this action is that the Iraq outbreaks "may also pose a threat to the EU" The EU itself, having jumped off the vaccination bandwagon in 1990, is fearful of FMD on its doorstep - but cannot seem to see that its own discrimination against vaccination leaves the virus a free hand if it crosses over that doorstep. The original worry about differentiating vaccinated from infected animals is solved by DIVA vaccines and it is harder and harder to hide the true, unscientific protectionist reason for the rules. As Dr Keith Sumption, Secretary EuFMD, wrote in December 2006 describing a similar vaccination programme in Turkey, (FAO website) :
"FMD is a virus that propagates incredibly quickly -- when it discovers a new niche where there is no immunity among animals, it just rips through them. Europe is FMD free, and animals there aren't vaccinated against it - so they have no immunity."

March 25 2009 ~ The Bio-Seeq Portable Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory is now being field tested

It is almost exactly eight years since a then state-of-the-art diagnostic kit was offered to - and rejected by - the UK government. As Roger Breeze told Farming today in 2004:
"... it is really preposterous for people to say that in some way this is some sort of theoretical device which has yet to be tested. The Department of Defense is using this every day in Afghanistan and Iraq - all over the world. There are thousands of these machines in use all the time. And so, you know, the people who think this is theoretical really ought to get out there in the world and see what is really going on..."(Read in full)
Now, the EuFMD Commission, with support from the EC (DG-SANCO) and the Government of Turkey are to carry out field tests on the portable diagnosis machine developed at Pirbright. Keith Sumption, Secretary EuFMD Commission, is quoted in the latest EUFMD newsletter
"BioSeeq has great potential to meet the need for a rapid and sensitive FMD test suitable for areas normally free from the infection. ...and could be used at the frontline in the management of epidemics when they occur. Speed in confirming FMD is vital as any delay potentially increases the impact of the disease."
Better late than never, some might say - but already, a new system of rapid on-site tests with far greater potential than PCR is waiting in the wings, we understand - and hope to be able to give more detail soon.

March 25 2009 ~ "This system makes possible the mass vaccination of a susceptible animal population without compromising the serological identification of convalescent individuals."

"Application of DIVA vaccines and their companion diagnostic tests to foreign animal disease eradication", was written 5 years ago by John Pasicka of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Winnipeg, and published online by Cambridge University Press in 2007:
"....eradication efforts which rely solely on quarantine and stamping-out measures can present a formidable undertaking. This, combined with growing economic and ethical considerations, has led to renewed interest in the use of vaccination ..... Vaccine effectiveness within a population is a function of its ability to reduce virus transmission. .... Nevertheless, vaccination can also complicate serological surveillance activities that follow eradication, if the antibody response induced by vaccination is indistinguishable from that which follows infection. This disadvantage can be overcome by the use of DIVA vaccines and their companion diagnostic tests...."
DIVA vaccines and tests have been available for several years - and as Colin Fink reminds us below,
"... the whole exercise of vaccination is to reduce the virus shed into the environment to a level which stops the disease (measles smallpox, polio, Foot and Mouth etc) from spreading. Any very low level infection in a recently vaccinated animal meeting wild type virus is of no consequence...."
Yet a presumed threat from "carrier animals" is still emphasised in such publications as this month's paper in Epidemiol Infect. 2009 Mar 17:1-11:"The effect of vaccination on undetected persistence of foot-and-mouth disease virus in cattle herds and sheep flocks" PubMed (David Paton et al). It is tempting to suspect that the preoccupation with "carriers" is more commercial than scientific. Pirbright, so starved of funds, is naturally and understandably interested in a market for its own serosurveillance and testing kits.

March 15 2009 ~ When computer modelling goes haywire.....

From today's Sunday Telegraph. Christopher Booker writes about the climate conference held in New York
".. organised by the Heartland Institute under the title Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?. In Britain this received no coverage at all, apart from a sneering mention by the Guardian, although it was addressed by dozens of expert scientists, not a few of world rank, who for professional standing put those in Copenhagen in the shade.... Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, perhaps the most distinguished climatologist in the world, the message of this gathering was that the scare over global warming has been deliberately stoked up for political reasons and has long since parted company with proper scientific evidence... it is already painfully clear that the computer forecasts are going hopelessly astray..."
One shares Christopher Booker's deep concern that distinguished scientists who dare to go against the current orthodoxy, are ignored and sneered at:
"... there is no dialogue on these issues.."
(See also the graphic and comment at Eureferendum which also makes one seriously question the received wisdom about global warming.)
With what gratitude and affection many of us remember Professor Fred Brown and his gently persistent attempt to bring sanity to the FMD policies of 2001 - yet another case where seductive but flawed computer modelling drowned out any voice of humane reason, however distinguished.

March 12 2009 ~ "European science advice looks very deficient" Professor John Beddington.

The BBC today reports how the present Chief Scientific Adviser is leading efforts to update Europe's system and is calling for more independent advisers and for policies and regulations to be independently assessed.
Certainly, science independent of the fear of upsetting the establishment, might point out the fallacies of the present EU FMD policy.
The FMD Vaccine Differentiation Group, for example, repeats the mantra that there is a possibility that vaccinated animals "can subsequently become infected with FMD virus" leaving out the most important point - that even if they were, in the short time before developing immunity (and the vaccinates would be unlikely to be rubbing noses with animals on farms infected), the amount of virus shed is so vastly reduced as not to pose a danger. The Group suggests that the virus would "replicate in them sub-clinically and be present persistently for a long time" but as Dr Colin Fink points out:
"... the whole exercise of vaccination is to reduce the virus shed into the environment to a level which stops the disease ( measles smallpox, polio, Foot and Mouth etc) from spreading. Any very low level infection in a recently vaccinated animal meeting wild type virus is of no consequence and NO animal which seroconverts to vaccine will be a long term excretor of virus."
Removing the discrimination against FMD vaccination for Member States is of such importance that a website such as this - with the moral support of many of those who do understand the science and deplore the unnecessarily destructive present policy - has been pleading for change for nearly eight very long years.

March 12 2009 ~ "farmers still have the mental scars from the ordeal..": Ben Fogle

Ben Fogle is an explorer and the son of Bruce Fogle, the well known vet, who wrote to the Veterinary Record in May 2001, "Most of us, I imagine, have personal feelings about the logic, value and welfare considerations of foot-and-mouth disease control strategies". Ben Fogle, after making a film about the Brecon Beacons where so many healthy hefted flocks were slaughtered in 2001, has called for
safeguards "to prevent a repeat of the devastation wrought by the disease in 2001"
Wales Online quotes Mr Fogle:
"I still remember my father...coming home with sad tales about how farmers with herds that they had nurtured for many years, having to watch healthy livestock be slaughtered, just in case foot-and-mouth took hold. .....The Government needs to put into place better plans of action, should a similar outbreak ever happen again."
He says that a lot of people "forget how hideous the trauma of foot and mouth was". That can be true only of those who were lucky enough never to know just how hideous it was.

March 6 2009 ~ "His Lordship did not so read the section"

Ruttle Plant Hire Ltd, in its long battle to be paid late payment interest on invoices from nearly ten years ago - the CSF outbreak that immediately preceded foot and mouth 2001 - has been successful in appealing against DEFRA's argument that "mistakes in a supplier's invoice" allowed the Department to avoid late payment interest penalties. (See Times March 4) As Lord Justice Jacob said, the phrase "notice of the amount of the debt" from the Late Payment of Commercial Debt (Interest) Act 1998. does not require the invoice to be perfect before interest can run.
"... If it did, that would lead an employer looking for the smallest detail of error in an invoice. If he found one, he could delay payment of the whole sum and avoid payment of the statutory interest."
The February 27th 2009 judgment was a Court of Appeal decision and binding on all lower courts.
In 2004, Ruttles managed finally to get paid by DEFRA for its FMD work (£13.7million was due plus interest).

March 6 2009 ~ " The disputes are usually trivial and include such items as formal errors in the invoice."

From "Review of the effectiveness of European Community legislation in combating late payments" ec.europa.eu/enterprise/regulation/late_payments/doc/finalreport_en.pdf in which we see a dim view taken of such behaviour and a conclusion that "efforts need to be renewed constantly and that no improvement can be taken for granted":
"The JDM and Ruttle cases involving UK public entities are edifying. In these case the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs disputed invoices clearly in an attempt to delay payment or avoid payment altogether. The Courts found for the complainant ..." (p 243)
Christopher Booker could only write about the 2004 Ruttle case a year later (link) :
"Hundreds of firms fell foul of Defra's decision in 2002 to avoid paying its foot and mouth debts. Many, under Defra's remorseless pressure, eventually agreed to settle for a fraction of the money owed, under "confidentiality" agreements forbidding them to discuss their case..."
The judgement of Feb 27 may cheer those whose debts from DEFRA are, even now, still outstanding from 2001 but it is too late for those actually bankrupted by the Department's methods to avoid such payments - methods that some might consider a scandalous misuse of power.

March 4/ 5 2009 ~ "the need for continuing advances in vaccine technology combined with clear communication"

The National Office of Animal Health (NOAH)'s conference - "The role of vaccination in animal health - future technology and societal acceptance" - was held at The Royal Society in London yesterday. The results of a consumer survey were "encouraging" according to the NOAH press release. "with the onset of recession, consumers are giving more thought to the food they buy - they want good value, more local produce and to be assured of high animal health and welfare".
Phil Sketchley, chief executive of NOAH, is quoted: "We need to thoroughly explore the role vaccination has to play in animal health and, most importantly, how we can best communicate with the public to improve understanding and acceptance of new technologies which protect both our livestock and ourselves as consumers." Read in full

March 2 2009 ~ "differential based on suffering"

It was with gloom that we read that in Taiwan the percentage of pigs being vaccinated against FMD nationwide has dropped from 50 percent last November [2008] to the current level of less than 10 percent. (See ProMed) The Taiwanese Swine Association is apparently very worried by the Council of Agriculture which, in view of last month's outbreaks, is now considering the resumption of nationwide vaccination at a time when the Swine Association had hoped to be "moving toward a zero injection rate to meet the OIE's requirements" One encouraging comment from the Teipei Times yesterday was a quote from Taiwan's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health:
"it is about the science. We will make the final decision after talking with the Swine Association and experts..."
But how far the science can prevail when the meat exporters are desperate to meet the "OIE's requirements" remains to be seen. As for the EU, when will the Commission finally accept that the discrimination against vaccination has no basis at all in veterinary science or virology - but exists to give trade advantages. In other words, it is a price differential based on suffering. Foot and Mouth is rampant in the world as these ProMed reports reveal. Few doubt that modern FMD vaccines are effective and safe, but vaccination is still feared because of the complicated OIE requirements about disease free status in which the differentiation between vaccinated and non-vaccinated status - once justified by science - can only be described now as wholly and disastrously out-of-date (see FMD vaccination page).

27th February 2009 ~ An anxious wait for the 7 farmers.

More on the FMD case from Farmers Weekly An NFU official is quoted: "The fact the judge has reserved judgment and not thrown out the case is an important first hurdle cleared. The next step is the judge's decision which may take days or weeks. If he rules in favour of the farmers it will then move on to a full trial and the possibility of appeals before any compensation will be awarded. It is potentially a very long road ahead." (See also below)

27th February 2009 ~ "Our grazing livestock are the guardians of our landscape - we still have our traditional British meat. But even that is under threat from supermarket pressure...."

Country Life recently conducted a British beef tasting. The winner out of about 10 different breeds was the Longhorn ( see examples of the breed)
One of the judges, Caroline Cranbrook, explains in her article"Britain's Best Steak" in praise of British grass-fed beef;
" ... Research suggests (and diners know) that grass-fed beef tastes better. Traditional breeds also have increased marbling of fat, which melts into the meat during cooking and gives it a better flavour. Treatment at slaughter is another factor.
If animals are stressed before slaughter, the meat becomes tough. Short journeys to the local abattoir equal less stress for the animal, fewer 'food miles' and better meat.
Our grazing livestock ... are the guardians of our landscape. The mosaics of small fields, downland, heathland, fells, salt-marshes and most of our wildlife reserves all have to be grazed to maintain their beauty and biodiversity. Without livestock, they would revert either to arable cultivation or become abandoned thickets...."
Read in full at Country Life

26th February 2009 ~ Farmers' claims "serious, substantial and meritorious"

The three-day hearing in the case brought by the remaining 7 farmers claiming damages following the 2007 foot and mouth disease outbreak concluded today with the Judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, reserving judgment. Richard Lissack QC, for the farmers, said their claims were "serious, substantial and meritorious".
Tim Lord QC, representing the farmers, "It is nothing short of scandalous that there should be these losses as a result and that they should go uncompensated."
On Monday, the Judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, said: "…I have very much in mind how devastating the consequences of this outbreak surely were to a great many livestock farmers."
The solicitors instructed by the claimants are Thring Townsend Lee & Pembertons, one of the NFU's panel firms. The claimants are also represented by Richard Lissack QC, Tim Lord QC and Maya Lester. See Farming UK

24th February 2009 ~ Out of court settlement for 7 of the 14 FMD farmers

Several papers report the news about the out of court settlement (Google - News). As we report below, there were 14 farmers who claimed redress after the Surrey outbreak in 2007 . When the case began in the High Court yesterday, the defendants did not admit liability but they have settled out of court the claims of the seven farmers whose livestock was killed during the 2007 outbreak. The case at the High Court will be contested by IAH Pirbright and Merial. Their co-defendant is DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn as licensor and regulator of site. The case is likely to last until next Wednesday.

23 February 2009 ~ That was then

Just months ago, Dr Iain Anderson's 2007 Report suggested that DEFRA should take the lead in transforming IAH into a 'National Institute of Infectious Diseases', supported by funding from government and elsewhere and with links to universities. He also suggested creating an Independent Advisory Committee on Animal and Emerging Infectious Diseases (see below) to take a strategic view of animal health. The Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills, Sixth Report, Section 5, strongly agreed:
"107. The Pirbright redevelopment is of considerable national importance. We recommend that as a matter of urgency DIUS (via the BBSRC and Large Facilities Capital Fund) and Defra settle how they are to share the cost of the Pirbright redevelopment project ... the final settlement should be announced by the time the Government responds to this report...."
Read in full The response to the Anderson Review appeared on February 3 2009. (pdf) and makes it quite clear that DEFRA is most definitely not going to be taking the lead in any transformation of Pirbright and that not much in the way of a "final settlement" can be expected from that quarter.

23 February 2009 ~ This is now

"...a big question mark over our ability to react to future outbreaks, at a time when we will be under increased threat from new animal diseases.." says Professor Keith Gull, the Chairman of the IAH governing body, and a microbiologist at Oxford University, quoted by The Observer article: "U-turn over 'foot and mouth' lab". It makes for grim reading. So much for the Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills' urgent advice: " All funders of high containment laboratories must ensure that long-term funding for running costs is provided... The Government has a particular responsibility in this regard.."
A statement from the Royal Society this month said that the redevelopment of the IAH site at Pirbright should be a priority, while an optimistic BBSRC statement on Feb 13 says
"... in the longer term IAH should become a single site Institute, based at Pirbright....(see also below) IAH should have SAPO-4 large animal containment facilities and SAPO-4 laboratories at Pirbright and BBSRC Executive should work with IAH Executive and Defra to ensure long term financial sustainability."
But the financial sustainability to ensure such internationally recognised high standards is now looking uncertain. See The Observer article.

February 22/23 2009 ~ Professor Gull: "Defra has avoided the conclusions of the Anderson report and has gone for a short-term solution.."

"... that shows it has failed to learn the key lesson that a more integrated, long-term approach is needed."
As the Farmers Guardian made clear last week, the tightening of the purse strings was in fact likely to have been a Treasury move (as so often):
"Sources within Government have suggested the Treasury intervened.."
On the principle of 'He who pays the piper..', one is even tempted to wonder whether a lessening of DEFRA's influence might turn out to be a good thing in the end. The harking on about "value for taxpayers' money" by Defra's spokeman, quoted in the Observer, makes one - as usual - wonder what universe the Department inhabits - especially when contemplating examples of what DEFRA has considered value for taxpayers' money in the recent past.

February 18 2009 ~ "The general problem cited was bureaucracy and, in particular, transport regulations... the burdens became intolerable."

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) has carried out a survey of those members keeping breeds at risk. Of a substantial sample of 350 members, 288 valid returns were analysed. Members were asked to state whether they intended to abandon livestock keeping either in 2008, or within the next three years.
The results are very worrying and could be disastrous for some of our breeds.
The RBST will be monitoring the situation and lobbying hard to champion the concerns of native livestock keepers. See also pdf file in full

February 17 2009 ~ "... I can only conclude that the BBC is institutionally uninterested in the real countryside..."

"... the people who live and work in it, and the problems and the discrimination that they face day by day. All this of course breaks the BBC's own Charter and the codes of conduct derived from it..."
This link to an article in the Mail today, "One Man and his Blog", sent to warmwell.com this afternoon, may well be of interest to others who are saddened by certain aspects of a once justly loved institution.

February 14 2009 ~ "only someone whose soul belongs to the 18th century could so casually dismiss the government's role in negotiating with the rest of Europe in order to minimise the damage to agricultural exports..." Guardian

Today's Farming UK appears to be re-issuing an article from the Guardian in 2007 when foot and mouth had been confirmed in Surrey:
"...vaccination.... today it could eliminate the risk of a foot and mouth epidemic at a stroke. it need not become the crisis as long as the infection is not allowed to escalate into an epidemic.
Everything is in place to prevent it, but every day a decision is deferred, the risk increases that the disease will spread to other farmed animals....
In the origins of this outbreak at the Pirbright research site lie the obvious solution...."
More recently, in November 2008, Hilary Benn himself said: ".... In relation to foot-and-mouth, and we put, as you will know, the vaccination teams on standby when there was the outbreak last year, I think attitudes have shifted compared to where they were in 2001."
Mr Benn is right. Attitudes have certainly shifted.
Now what is needed from the UK Government is to set an example that the rest of the Member States would be very likely to follow, and get the EU Commission to re-examine the scientific basis for its discrimination against FMD vaccine.

February 9/10 2009 ~ "FMD free without vaccination" - a trade advantage which needs to be re-examined scientifically

In spite of the EU's page: Questions and answers on vaccination policy of the EU few can be in any doubt that the discrimination between "with vaccination" and "without vaccination" has nothing to do with so-called "fear of vaccinated carriers" and everything to do with protectionism. The "vaccinated carrier" risk, as we see below, is negligible - and it is this false perception that creates the two-tier system rightly feared by exporters. A scientific acknowledgment of this would expose as unnecessary the EU regulations on animals, meat and products vaccinated against FMD. As Appendix 63 of a recent FAO conference on FMD says, it is real levels of risk - "not perceived risks" that
"must be considered when developing regulations and guidelines for the international movement and trade in animals and animal products. It must also be the most important consideration when deciding on the various options to deal with an outbreak.." Read full extract
In the paper's recommendations: " ...the policy of restrictions on export trade when part of the livestock population is vaccinated for controlling outbreaks should be reconsidered...If the vaccination option is used at an early stage, it will cause the least disruption of social and economic life. .." It is disturbing that it is the regulations themselves that are regarded as sufficiently set in stone to preclude any challenge. The scientific basis of these regulations must be re-evaluated when, without vaccination, there is such widespread waste and distress at the time of an outbreak.

February 9 2009 ~ Argentina: "Without pasture, you have nothing...they are killing the meat machine..."

Few may realise that, like drought-ridden southeastern Australia, Argentina is suffering the worst drought in a generation. As the Washington Post puts it today:
"...The cattle for the most part are dying of hunger, as the dry skies have shriveled up their pastures, along with huge swaths of Argentina's important soy, corn and wheat fields..."
Because of the success of Argentina's soybean production more and more ranchers have been selling off their cattle or transferring them to less fertile pastures, without devoting "appropriate investment in pastures and watering systems." As we reported in May, beef farmers have been badly affected by the limiting of beef exports. It is distressing to read that "more and more ranchers have moved to fattening animals in feedlots" One farmer comments:
"In Argentina, the quality of the beef that we have is because the cows are raised on the pasture. This is what gives it the flavor you don't get in the feedlot. We are basically producers of pasture. The cows transform pasture into meat, and into milk. Without pasture, you have nothing."
As for Argentina's FMD vaccination campaign, Farming UK, without comment on the dire situation in Argentina, reports that all bulls and cows there will be vaccinated once a year from 2010 with other smaller animals still being vaccinated twice a year. This, the authority says, will maintain the country's status of being free from Foot and Mouth Disease with vaccination.

February 8/9 2009 ~DEFRA is to break its funding commitment for Pirbright re-development

In November 2006, Pirbright's memorandum to the (then) Science and Technology Select Committee:
"The budget for the new build is £121 million including inflation and, in terms of capital expenditure, both DTI and Defra have committed their full contribution for the life of the project (2004 - 12)"
Even so, IAH saw a a funding gap of £8.2 million per annum to cover the higher operating costs..."Defra have not yet been able to commit to funding its/VLA share of the potential future funding gap - as per Recommendation 1 of the Gateway 2 report of 9 February 2006. This commitment is being sought as a matter of considerable urgency..." Now, however, as Alistair Driver in the Farmers Guardian reveals, DEFRA seems to be pulling out of funding the re-development of Pirbright itself. The responsibility now falls entirely onto BBSRC, which will now have to "submit a business case" to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (the former DTI) in the hope of getting the funding necessary to complete the project.
DEFRA's decision may have put in jeopardy the future of an effective disease control programme for the UK. NFU's Peter Kendall is quoted: "It is now absolutely critical the BBSRC is able to raise the money. If its budget is also constrained, it will be very, very damaging." He said that notwithstanding the 'financial meltdown' on Government finances DEFRA's decision ignored the 'underlying messages' about food security.
Read article in full Read IAH 2006, Pirbright's memorandum and article in Nature.com

February 8/9 2009 ~ FMD in Basra - animals helped with antibiotics and pain-killers until the disease type is determined and vaccines sent - from Pirbright

This report from www.irinnews.org reveals the very different attitude to FMD that exists outside the EU and US. The general director of Basra province's veterinary hospital believes there are probably slightly more than 50 percent of the province's nearly 120,000 livestock affected and the outbreak has killed about 80 young (less than six months old) cattle, buffalos, goats and sheep. "We have already sent samples to laboratories in London (i.e. Pirbright in Surrey) to determine which type has hit Basra and we are expecting to receive the results and new vaccines within the coming few days." Dr Sabah Jassim, the general director of the Basra-based Veterinary Company, which is affiliated to the Iraqi Agriculture Ministry,commented, ".... it is a disease like other diseases that hit animals."

Feb 4/5 2009 ~ "We plan to consult on specific proposals for implementing responsibility and cost sharing for animal health shortly."

Hansard, yesterday. This was the answer given when Jane Kennedy was asked by Bill Wiggen what plans DEFRA has ".. to establish an arm's length body responsible for animal health." It seems that the Minister did not feel like sharing her thoughts on this matter just yet.
The tireless MP from Leominster then asked the Secretary of State (Hansard) what plans DEFRA has
" to require livestock keepers to enter into a compulsory registration scheme"
He asked for a statement. What he got was: "A compulsory annual fee based registration scheme of livestock keepers is being considered as part of the wider responsibility and cost sharing agenda for animal health. The purpose of the scheme would be to raise contributions from industry towards the control and eradications of exotic diseases." She then repeated, "We plan to consult on specific proposals for implementing responsibility and cost sharing for animal health shortly."
(The verb "consider" has different meanings at different times for DEFRA, it seems. For years "consider the use of emergency vaccination" has meant "it is unlikely to happen". Here, the compulsory annual fee is being "considered" too; it would be cheering to think a consultation could make it anything other than a foregone conclusion.)

February 4 2009 ~" well and truly bushwhacked in a carefully planned ambush" Kim Haywood

An article on www.farminguk.com reveals that what was a Government proposal that farmers provide match funding for all the disease surveillance and awareness work seems now to be already included in the government's current budget.
"..The shock move... is contained in Defra's response to the Anderson review.... Describing the development as "a stiletto slipped between the ribs of an unsuspecting industry" National Beef Association director, Kim Haywood, says government determination to curb its disease control costs by imposing a headage based levy is now obvious to all."
The article goes on to say that any future discussion on so-called "RCS" (Responsibility and Cost Sharing) will now have focus on how to make cost sharing affordable and ensuring that any money farmers contribute is spent effectively. Which individuals are to contribute is not yet worked out. Kim Haywood is quoted again: "The text of Defra's response to the Anderson Review is already before Parliament so there is no chance of the offending paragraphs being held back for re-consideration. This means an uninformed livestock industry has been well and truly bushwhacked in a carefully planned ambush."
Once again, farmers, particularly those in small family farms, seem to be without a voice to ask for answers. Even the best farming unions seem powerless. There is no mention, for example, of the cost of FMD vaccine nor how much farmers would have to pay for disease outbreaks and surveillance. Read article and see pdf file of government response to the Anderson Report and recommendations.

February 4 2009 ~ "We recommend that Defra continues to develop and test its policies and arrangements for emergency vaccination.." Anderson

Sir Iain Anderson's Review made important recommendations to which the government has now responded. Recommendation 8 from the 2007 Anderson Review says
"We recommend that Defra continues to develop and test its policies and arrangements for emergency vaccination, as a central element of its control strategy, ensuring that the full implications of vaccination are thought through and widely understood."
The response is predictable. "DEFRA and Animal Health" will continue to "keep under review the science behind vaccination". Concern about "products from vaccinated animals" appears to require "engagement with consumer organisations" and "those involved in the food production chain". Yet, as we have been trying so hard to explain over the past eight years, there is no question about the efficacy of FMD vaccine, no question about vaccinated food products. being safe. When vaccination is rejected as a "central element of control policy"- as it was in both 2001 and 2007- the only conclusion possible is that FMD infection is preferred. In early August 2007, although appalled by the escape of virus from Pirbright, we therefore confidently expected immediate emergency ring vaccination. After all,
• We knew the strain
• We had appropriate vaccine almost within yards
• We knew that this time the outdated scientific arguments against vaccination had long since been exploded - leaving only the animal product export sector to cry out against vaccination
The decision not to vaccinate but to revert to stamping out was met with widespread disbelief and led to anxiety, emotional trauma, the loss of thousands of healthy animals - and a standstill for farmers as far away as Shetland. (See yesterday's government responses to the recommendations or read pdf file in full)
Reader comments

Feb 4 2009 ~ a CBA could be done in five minutes on the back of an envelope by anyone who understood the rural economy, the science of virology and the social consequences of killing.

DEFRA says that work will "include an examination of the Cost Benefit Analyses of different vaccination strategies."
Again.
There can be no humane alternative to adequate rapid diagnosis and emergency vaccination. The expensive Risk Solutions' report that finally appeared in 2005 was of very limited use, failing to factor in the need to protect the rural economy as a whole or state clearly that protecting the big exporters by not vaccinating would cause huge financial losses elsewhere.
It is disheartening to see the same phrases and the same vague but back-covering statements of intent coming from the government in these latest respinses. Those it gave to the 2004 SAC report recommendations were along uncannily similar lines and - one gloomily wonders - will no doubt appear many times more in different guises until common sense and leadership can change ways of thinking that seem to have been stuck in tramlines for far too long.

February 14 2009 ~ No more self congratulation: The rules have to be changed.

Defra seems to consider the Anderson Report to have been an acknowledgement that "most things were handled well." Our day to day record of the 2007 Surrey outbreak suggests otherwise. The EU must be pressed for change to its unscientific and indefensible discrimination against vaccination to control FMD; instead, the 2007 FMD fiasco sent the strong message to Brussels that its protectionist regulations are acceptable to Member States. (The legal case brought by 14 livestock farmers claiming damages against IAH, Merial and Defra is still being pursued in the High Court.)

January 30 2009 ~FMD vaccine doses will be available free of charge - in Saudi Arabia

ProMed reports that in Saudi Arabia, a recent local FMD prevention campaign resulted in the detection of 24 FMD cases showing early clinical signs of disease. The director of animal resources affairs of the eastern province announced that 2962 head of cattle have been vaccinated since the beginning of the campaign early last week and confirms that the FMD prevention campaign will continue with 23 950 polyvalent (for cattle) and 10 800 monovalent (for small ruminants) FMD vaccine doses available free of charge. See ProMed

January 23 2009 ~ FMD research to be carried out in Thailand.

The proposal was developed during 2008 by the Animal Health Committee's (AHC) FMD Vulnerabilities Working Party. The project will also draw on science from around the world and is, says this report from an Australian website, fw.farmonline.com.au a "direct response to last year's catastrophic FMD outbreak in Britain and an earlier outbreak in 2001." The AHC is made up of the chief veterinary officer of Australia and the chief vets of each state.

January 20 2009 ~ More about the Stratophase diagnostic optical sensor chip, Spectrosens

www.eurekamagazine.co.uk"... Devaki Bhatta, project leader from Stratophase, said: "The ability to collect and identify airborne pathogens will remove the need for swabs and blood samples. This project is to develop a foot and mouth detection unit but could be used to identify TB and a range of other serious illnesses that affect livestock...". Stratophase's technology detects toxins, viruses and bacteria in real time. .... Dr Ralf Hellmann said: "As a purely optical process, it relies on changes in the refractive index on the surface of the sensor. This eliminates the usual and costly complication with other technologies of preparing the liquid specimen with fluorescent tags." (More on rapid diagnostic technology)

January 19 2009 ~ "Animal health systems are not a commercial or a strictly agriculture good"

Dr Bernard Vallat, the director general of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), gave a presentation yesterday at the Animal Health & Welfare conference during Green Week in Berlin. He spoke particularly of the concept of the "Global Public Good" and the need for cooperation: "nowhere in the world from which we are remote and no one from whom we are disconnected".
1 billion poor farmers survive owing to the livestock they produce, he said. The impact of animal diseases threatens food security and public health throughout the world since "unprecedented movements of commodities and people are used by pathogens to circulate worldwide". In the EU the legal obligations of Member States on the issue of surveillance, early detection and rapid response need to be increased. Importantly, "Vaccination when appropriate" was seen as one of the requirements for all countries: "Failure of one country may endanger all the planet".(Interested readers may contact warmwell.com for more detail.)

January 18/19 2009 ~ "Defra must be encouraged to collect clinical advice from outside the citadel walls"

The politicians seem to prefer to listen to those with other interests. A year ago, Jonathan Shaw poured cold water on the idea of vaccination against Classical Swine Fever saying, "there are currently no operational arrangements in place to mount a CSF vaccination programme" - adding the usual mantra that "we keep our policy on CSF vaccination under review in the light of scientific developments in vaccines". Is such light to shine from outside the walls of the DEFRA citadel? Even the EU - historically also very chary about vaccination - now keeps and renews Community stocks of live attenuated vaccine against classical swine fever.
In the present low pathegenic bird flu (H5N3) outbreak in Germany, 600,000 turkeys have already been killed - to the apparent indifference of all English reports. Even ProMed has not reported on this (UPDATE: ProMed now has a report. The Moderator, AS, says,
" It will be interesting to note whether vaccination, replacing culling, has been considered." (read ProMed)
The expert virologists and microbiologists understand the vital importance to animal and human health of vaccination. Professor Dr. Thomas C. Mettenleiter, President of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, has just repeated at an animal health conference in Berlin - "vaccination during an outbreak would help to reduce virus circulation". And we remember with gratitude a letter to the Times, written at the time of the 2007 FMD crisis:
"...There is a lack of understanding within the vet labs' scientists of the mechanisms of clinical containment of viral disease...(The) no-vaccination view is promoted by a few exporters for short-term reasons. The British are subscribing to EU rules that virologists and informed vets consider to be ill-informed. It would be better to solve the problem with good science and then lobby for change in Brussels..... Defra must be encouraged (forced?) to collect clinical advice from outside the citadel walls..."
Read in full

January 16/17 2009 ~ Deep concern at decision to move from Plum Island to Kansas

The Department of Homeland Security has given "final approval" to building the 450-million dollar US National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Kansas. The decision means that Plum Island Animal Disease Center will close in 2015 - unless, says www.newsday.com
"Long Island officials can persuade the Obama administration to overturn it... "
As we said in July, Plum Island has been successfully operational for fifty years, is protected by more than a mile of water, and the area is home to very few animals that could catch disease - the Homeland Security report acknowledged this. Kansas on the other hand is considered to rank third in economic importance to the U.S. live cattle industry. A press release from R-calf USA a national, non-profit organization, today expresses deep concern,
"What is disheartening about Monday's announcement is that the deadline for comments from the public on the Manhattan Campus Site's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was midnight on (Monday) Jan. 12. This tells us in no uncertain terms that the bureaucrats already had made up their minds to approve the Kansas location and chose to blatantly disregard any concerns the public may have submitted in formal comments. Only time will tell what sort of political favors were involved in this unsuitable decision....."

January 16/17 2009 ~ GAO report highlighted the risks of a release from a laboratory in close proximity to the susceptible animals

The recent GAO report "GAO-08-821T High-Containment Biosafety Laboratories" ( warmwell's html version) concluded that an island location can help prevent what happened in the UK in 2007: the spread of FMD virus along terrestrial routes (by vehicles splashed with contaminated mud, for example) and also perhaps airborne transmission..
"...A recent release from the Pirbright facility - located in a farming community on the mainland of the United Kingdom - highlights the risks of a release from a laboratory that is in close proximity to the susceptible animals...
....human error can never be completely eliminated ...accidents, while rare, still occur because of human or technical errors. Given the non-zero risk of a release from any biocontainment facility, most of the experts we spoke with told us that an island location can provide additional protection. ...."
The report revealed too that " DHS has not conducted or commissioned any study to determine whether FMD work can be done safely on the U.S. mainland...."

January 13-14 2009 ~ The UK's "standard disease control methods" for diseases such as CSF and FMD could be vaccination.

Germany's approach to their outbreak of Classical Swine Fever just reported is to use oral vaccines ( See below) . In the last CSF crisis in the UK in 2000 in East Anglia MAFF employed its "stamping out" policy from August until November. 40,875 pigs were slaughtered on 16 infected farms and 24,665 pigs were slaughtered as "dangerous contacts" on 30 farms. A few months later, in spite of existing effective vaccines, the similar mass killing of farm animals suspected of foot and mouth began - but this resulted in the deaths of at least 10 million, a large majority of which were uninfected. Dr David Shannon, chief scientist at the Ministry of Agriculture and Defra during the BSE and foot and mouth crises, said the committee that advised the Prime Minister made incorrect assumptions about the outbreak because it did not fully understand the disease, the food industry or farming practices. The official UK mindset has not substantially changed since then - as Jonathan Shaw's answer to PQ 182050 from Tim Farron a year ago (Hansard) makes ominously clear. There was no mention of vaccination and no mention of rapid on-site diagnosis.

January 13-14 2009 ~ " ensure that this level of bureaucratic and political incompetence and widespread abuse of rural families and farm animals never happens again"

A vet who is also a novelist, "James Drew", wrote "Following Orders" as a warning against the sort of behaviour that went on officially in 2000 and in the FMD crisis of 2001. As we read on the relevant pighealth.com page
"Every vet, livestock farmer and Agriculture Ministry official must read this book and ensure that this level of bureaucratic and political incompetence and widespread abuse of rural families and farm animals never happens again." (See also Amazon reviews)
In June 2008, the report on Exercise Cedar, the "Tabletop Exercise" on CSF, makes no mention at all of vaccination - but we see the ominous sentence
"Defra Legal should clarify the powers held to enter premises for wild boar field activities."
Perhaps Jane Kennedy and DEFRA officials will follow the vaccination campaign in Germany with interest and consider the appropriateness of the present contingency plan for CSF.
(The EU Commission Decision of 18 October 2007 on the renewal of the Community stocks of live attenuated vaccine against classical swine fever can be seen here).

Jan 12 2009 ~ "There is something grossly offensive about the way in which various bodies, from government downwards, communicate with their 'stakeholders' ..."

Additional comment from a reader about the HSE initiative (below) "....they assume that our intelligence and outlook is as defective and limited as theirs - as to their 'promises' - I am actually rendered speechless by such a pointless and wasteful approach."

January 5 2009 ~ identification of FMD infected animals before development of clinical signs - "a paper already published that describes the same under field conditions in Pakistan and employing many more samples..."

Professor. Soren Alexandersen, presently the Director of the Winnipeg National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, writes of the paper published this week by BMC Veterinary Research 2008 "Diagnosis of foot-and mouth disease by real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction under field conditions in Brazil" by Tatiane A Paixao et al that he agrees that rapid and reliable detection of FMDV allows identification of infected animals before development of clinical signs - under field conditions and in a fraction of the time required for combined virus isolation/ELISA. However, writes Prof Alexanderson, warmwell readers might be interested in a paper by his own team, published in the Journal Virology in April 2008
" that describes the same under field conditions in Pakistan and employing many more samples"
We are very grateful to Professor Alexanderson. "Epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease in Landhi Dairy Colony, Pakistan, the world largest Buffalo colony (pdf); by Joern Klein, Manzoor Hussain, Munir Ahmad, Muhammad Afzal and Soren Alexandersen. The paper together with its supplements and Prof Alexanderson's email can be accessed here.

January 4 2009 ~ The biggest breakthrough for 50 years? Really?

Today's news about Pirbright's "lateral flow device" at the FMD newsportal at (UC Davis ) is baffling. Has anything actually changed since we last reported on this? It doesn't matter how quickly the penside lateral flow device is used at the lab or on the farm - our understanding is that the lateral flow device is designed to detect antigen and this can only be detected from lesions. The animals must already have developed lesions, hence the instruction in 2007 to look for lesions twice a day, before the penside test could be used at all. Informed comment would be very gratefully received.

January 4 2009 ~ But infection can be detected before it reaches the stage when a number of animals can be seen to be clinically infected.

Rapid on-site RT-PCR tests that can find disease in animals before they show any clinical signs at all are what will revolutionise diagnosis. IAH's 2007 statement 14 claimed that their lateral flow device could return a positive result within an hour "enabling DEFRA to take action" However, the "action" was always going to be slaughter - slamming the stable door long after the virus was on the move. Has the situation changed?
On December 10 2008 we reported that Biodetection expert Stratophase was working to develop a detector system using immunoassay diagnosis with teams from the University of Cambridge, Bristol Industrial and Research Associates Limited and Chelsea Technologies Group. (See www.cattlenetwork.com) and that the "Portable Direct Immunoassay Diagnosis Device for Animals and Humans (PDIDDAH)" will be "significantly more sensitive and accurate" than the lateral flow tests used at Pirbright. Its sensor system collects pathogens from the air and puts them into a liquid stream thus removing the need for swabs and blood samples.
The paper published this week by BMC Veterinary Research 2008 "Diagnosis of foot-and mouth disease by real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction under field conditions in Brazil" by Tatiane A Paixao et al.describes rapid and reliable detection of FMDV allowing identification of infected animals before development of clinical signs - under field conditions and in a fraction of the time required for combined virus isolation/ELISA.
In order to give retrospective legality to the mass slaughter of 2001 the 2002 Animal Health Act made provision for pre-emptive slaughter "on suspicion". What is now certain is that the development of rapid diagnosis for FMD and other pathogens is proceeding very fast. Any increase in publicity that alerts farmers and vets to the fact that state of the art technology makes it unnecessary to kill animals merely on suspicion of disease must be good news.

Dec 31 2008 ~ ".... this approach allows identification of infected animals even before development of clinical signs..."

Published today by BMC Veterinary Research 2008 is "Diagnosis of foot-and mouth disease by real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction under field conditions in Brazil" by Tatiane A Paixao et al. (BioMed Central provisional pdf) The rapid and reliable detection of FMDV allowing identification of infected animals even before development of clinical signs - under field conditions and in a fraction of the time required for combined virus isolation/ELISA - has once again been demonstrated. Pre-emptive slaughter on suspicion - with all its wastage and attendant miseries - can surely now be consigned to the dustbin of history. (More on rapid on-site diagnosis of FMDv)

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Dec 11 2008 ~ Contingency Plan changes to encompass lessons learned?

The changes to the contingency plan (pdf) can be seen here.We found 5 pages of defra-esque changes of name ("Culling, Transport, Disposal and Cleansing and Disinfection to be renamed Field Operations",and endless acronyms and references to unknown jargon such as "battle rhythm" ) but, while the Bluetongue section is updated to show vaccination, there is no commitment to immediate emergency FMD vaccination. Yet the paradox is that FMD vaccines are tried, tested and have proved excellent. (That is, in countries whose animal health policies aim to keep animals healthy. EU livestock is not safeguarded from the FMD virus.) While a delay of 2 days may be required while vaccine is prepared for delivery from storage and teams are readied, all we see, in the 68 page overview, even after two disastrous outbreaks of FMD, is that emergency vaccination response might now be in "4-5 days" and that :
"4.16. A number of strategies, such as emergency vaccination for FMD are now available. These could help reduce the numbers of animals to be disposed of in an outbreak and this should mean that ... disposal routes would be sufficient."

December 11 ~ No reference to use of rapid on-site diagnosis.

Such technology has existed for some years and new methods are constantly in development. Hand held machines can be operated after 5 minutes' training and can diagnose FMD before the onset of clinical signs, making unnecessary pre-emptive slaughter a trauma consigned to history. But no mention of any of this appears in the Plan. As readers know, the Animal Health Bill of 2002 made extensive slaughter a very easy option by inventing a legal power to enforce preemptive killing. According to law professors David Campbell and Robert Lee, the passing of that Bill - in the face of heart-cheering opposition from the House of Lords - suggested the UK government was "avoiding any lessons to be learned, by purporting to give itself the legal power to repeat its mistakes."

December 11 2008 ~ "Defra remains totally committed to ensuring we learn lessons from our experience of outbreaks, so that we can make sure we respond effectively in future.."

In addition to this statement, the news release sent out by DEFRA on December 9th announced that
"the Government's updated Exotic Animal Disease Contingency Plan was laid in Parliament today"
One reader emailed excitedly: "It is a relief to see that Defra has transferred its attention to exotic animals; There aren't so many of them." However, we must conclude from the DEFRA website that the animals referred to are our own sheep, cows, and chickens - and that far from the plan's having been been laid to rest somewhere in the Parliament building, the revised plan had in fact been laid before Parliament. And the changes?
"Changes to the plan reflect lessons identified from the incidents handled during 2008 and address recommendations made in Sir Iain Anderson's review of the 2007 outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease and feedback from the public consultation."
One wonders if other readers have been able to find any sign of lessons having been learned from the last two utterly disastrous FMD outbreaks in Britain.

December 11 2008 ~ The food crisis has pushed the number of hungry people in the world to almost 1billion

The FAO report The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008. calls the global crisis a "serious setback" to efforts to reduce mass starvation. "Soaring food prices have reversed some of the gain and successes in hunger reduction, making the mission of achieving the internationally agreed goal on hunger reduction more difficult," the report says.
"....It is vital that the international community share a common vision of how best to assist governments in eradicating chronic hunger, and that all parties work together to translate this vision into reality on the scale required. The situation cannot wait any longer."
The Financial Times comments: "Almost a decade ago, world leaders agreed in New York to the UN Millennium Development Goals, calling among other targets for a halving between 1990 and 2015 in the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. ....with leaders' attention firmly focused on the global financial crisis and its economic ramifications, many observers now believe that the hunger and poverty reduction targets are no longer achievable by 2015. Read FT article in full
(As for Britain, the new Welfare Reform Bill in the UK, planning to extend punitive measures against virtually everyone on benefits not looking for work, comes just at the very time when huge numbers of people face becoming jobless because of the recession. Matthew Norman in the Independent is at his sane, humane and furious best.)

December 10 2008 ~ Another rapid portable test for on-site diagnosis being developed

Biodetection expert Stratophase is working to develop a detector system for on-site diagnosis - the Portable Direct Immunoassay Diagnosis Device for Animals and Humans (PDIDDAH) - that will be "significantly more sensitive and accurate" than the lateral flow tests used during the 2007 FMD crisis. We read on www.cattlenetwork.com
"The sensor system will collect pathogens from the air and put them into a liquid stream. The liquid will then be analysed 'in the field' using Stratophase's optical sensor technology. The optical chips are coated with antibodies designed to attract specific antigens, such as those for TB or foot and mouth. If the targeted agent is present, it sticks to the surface and the chip undergoes a detectable change in optical spectrum, confirming the presence of the disease."
Dr Devaki Bhatta, the project leader from Stratophase, is quoted: "One of the most important developments that will be realised in this system is the ability to collect and identify airborne pathogens. This will remove the need for swabs and blood samples. This project is to develop a foot and mouth detection unit, but using different antibodies the system could be used to identify TB and a range of other serious illnesses that affect livestock." More detail on the rapid diagnosis page.

December 10 2008 ~ "The melamine affair is symptomatic of too much traded/imported/"adulterated" feedstuffs finding their way into even "organic" diets for both livestock and human consumers."Richard Sanders, Elm Farm

We have received a timely short article from Elm Farm. When the Soil Association randomly selected 12 oat-based products currently on sale and labelled as organic and sent them for analysis at the end of November the results proved alarming - all but two of the products tested positive for pesticide residues of chlormequat and glyphosate. As the article says, " Certifying Bodies are hoping that likely source of this embarrassing problem is simple substitution of non-organic for organic oats along the supply chain."

December 6 2008 ~ "If you want to have a Category 4 laboratory, it should be a modern facility," said Professor Brian Spratt - but vital Pirbright funding is very much in doubt

Close on the heels of yesterday's posting below comes bad news seen on the www.nature.com website. Extract:
"A £121 million new building for the Institute of Animal Health (IAH) at its troubled Pirbright site in Surrey has "greatly exceeded the originally approved budget", according to a review of high-level microbiological containment facilities led by George Griffin, a infectious disease researcher at St Georges, University of London. "Decisions are urgently needed on whether additional funds will be available. It takes a very long time to get these things planned and built," he says. The Pirbright facility is an integral part of the United Kingdom's ability to identify and study dangerous animal diseases, he says. "It really needs sorting." (read article)
When the eminent microbiologist Professor Brian Spratt visited Pirbright he saw insects in laboratory areas that were supposed to be sealed, outdated procedures for sterilisation and shabby laboratories. He is quoted, "If you want to have a category four laboratory, it should be a modern facility." In his report into the 2007 FMD outbreak, he said:.
"An accidental release from a high security containment facility is of obvious concern to the public and raises issues of public trust in both science and Government."
But there is no agreement on cost-sharing for the new laboraoties and buildings - apparently because of DEFRA's meagre budget allotment and the Government's inability to agree on the needed size and capacity of the new facility.

November 11 2008 ~ Rapid test for C. difficile infection gets EU go-ahead. But for animal diseases...?

There were 8,500 deaths in England and Wales from C difficile last year. Infections are estimated to cost the NHS up to £8,000 pounds per patient and more than £200 million each year. Hardly surprising then that the EU is willing that its hospitals have access to a highly effective rapid test for Clostridium difficile - wherever such a rapid diagnostic kit was produced. The new 50-minute test runs on America's Cepheid's GeneXpert(R) System. (See press release))
The same technology as that now used in Europe for C difficile can, with the appropriate reagents, detect FMD. The USDA test,, offered to the UK for field testing seven years ago, was a breakthrough in sensitive virus detection, able to diagnose even preclinical infection.
That the offer was turned down by Chief Scientific Advisor David King and his colleagues led some to wonder if part of the reason was because such a lucrative invention had not been made in this country.
The 2001 FMD crisis cost over 10 million animal lives, cost the UK up to £8 billion, while the farming industry's financial loss was estimated at more than £900 million. Had vaccines and rapid diagnostic tests been used in the UK in 2001 and 2007 there would have been no unnecessary slaughter, no attendant trauma, no ruinous loss.
As Roger Breeze wrote last year:
"...As a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons of almost 40 years, I am astounded and baffled as to why the government is allowed to continue to practise obsolete veterinary medicine that is clearly contrary to the welfare of animals...."
With greater awareness of what is possible in the field of human medicine, are there really hopeful signs that animal health policies may - at long last - be allowed to progress beyond the last miserable 300 years of 'cure by killing' - or are political and trade considerations still put first?

November 9/10 2008 ~ Hilary Benn thinks attitudes to FMD vaccination really have changed

During his grilling of Hilary Benn at the EFRA Committee on Wednesday, David Drew said (on the subject of bovine TB vaccination trials) ".. if you compare that to foot-and-mouth where we had the arguments about whether we could vaccinate to get ahead of the disease, we chose not to do that and we chose a culling policy and at that time, personally, I felt it was right. I think that, if we were to run it now, we would have a hell of a lot of argument about whether we could cull to try and eradicate the disease." To this the Secretary of State replied:
"I agree with that. In relation to foot-and-mouth, and we put, as you will know, the vaccination teams on standby when there was the outbreak last year, I think attitudes have shifted compared to where they were in 2001."
In other words, Hilary Benn was saying, along with David Drew, (if one is to use the vocabulary of the subsequent discussion on bovine TB) that in any future outbreak of foot and mouth, the cullers would be likely to be overruled by the jabbers. This is extraordinarily encouraging.

November 8 2008 ~ "...wishing those lost farmers were still there."

An interview with Michael Pollan at www.progressive.org considers what a good diet is. Simple, according to Pollan. Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Pollan argues that individual consumers can change things.
"The food industry is remarkably skittish. They're terrified of food scares and food fads, both of which can cost them billions overnight. So they're actually more responsive than you would think. One of the powerful things about the food issue is that people feel empowered by it. There are so many areas of our life where we feel powerless to change things, but your eating issues are really primal. You decide every day what you're going to put in your body - and what you refuse to put in your body. That's politics at its most basic."
Pollan describes the hellishness of America's hidden feedlots and intensively produced food and says that "If people could see how their food is produced, they would change how they eat."
"...Miles of manure-encrusted land teeming with thousands of animals and a giant mountain of corn and a giant mountain of manure. And a stench you can smell two miles before you get there.."
And he describes how industrialially produced potatoes have so many systemic pesticides that "they have to be stored for six months to off-gas the toxins..."
Asked, "Does the world have a food shortage now, or is it more a problem of distribution and changing diets?" he explained that trade globalization has caused many countries to lose the ability to grow their own grain - and they are now wishing those lost farmers were still there. Read the interview

November 7 ~ "this ridiculous guide which tells people not to walk their dog in the heat of the day or feed it at the table. .."

Bill Wiggin is quoted in the Telegraph on the subject of DEFRA's codes of practice for pet owners - part of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 whose stated aim is to prevent cruelty. What is seen as the patronising tone of the advice to pet owners - just released for yet another consultation - has caused a wave of irritation. Opposition policiticans have criticised the "over the top" rules that "take people for fools".
A letter in the Independent :
"At a time of the worst financial crisis since 1929, the New Labour apparatchiks at Defra have found time to produce a 26-page code which states:
"It is your responsibility to read the complete code of practice to fully understand your cat's welfare needs and what the law requires you to do."
Micro-management by this government has now gone beyond the bounds of sanity."
Many would say that warning perpetrators of the cruelty involved in factory farming or illegal meat production that they face tough new rules and sanctions - and enforcing them - might be a better subject for DEFRA publicity. It was Peter Melchett in the Guardian last year who reminded us that
" ...Agri-business knows that if they told the truth about the food they flog us... the chances are no one would ever buy the stuff again. ..the huge increase in output, for example in dairy cows, is leaving more and more of them incapable of managing more than one lactation. One-third of Britain's dairy cows are now killed after one period of milking, their bodies wrecked by the thousands of litres of milk that pour through them. With mad cow disease, foot-and-mouth and now bird flu, it is pretty clear that disease is a growing problem for industrial livestock farming, despite the claims that "bio-security" will lock nature and disease out..."

November 4 2008 ~ "The NFU has confirmed that it is not engaged in any discussions with DEFRA on livestock disease cost and responsibility sharing"

FWi "This follows an announcement yesterday (3 November) that the NFU, along with other livestock organisations, will help set up a new Bovine TB Eradication Group." (see TB page latest)
A Parliamentary Question from Roger Williams yesterday: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the effect of cost and responsibility sharing for animal disease on the effectiveness and profitability of British farming" received this from Jane Kennedy
"The Government intend to consult on specific proposals for sharing responsibilities and costs for animal health in England later this year. These proposals will be fully costed and accompanied by an initial impact assessment."
(See also warmwell's cost sharing page As Roger Breeze has pointed out:
"...To be a partner in a real negotiation, the industry has to know what it wants so that proposals from the government can be assessed in terms of how well they advance or retard what industry wants to see as the outcomes. Industry cannot negotiate meaningfully if its "negotiation" comments are only responses to proposals and goals of the government.." Read in full)

October 2008 ~ FMD legal case - " it's about accountability"

Google news links on the FMD 2007 legal case
www.getsurrey.co.uk quotes David Sheldrake, of Egham, one of the group of 14 farmers bringing the High Court action about the 2007 FMD crisis in Surrey and whose legal costs are now being covered by the NFU.
"... Nobody was prepared to put their hand up. They put the whole of the British farming industry in jeopardy ...."
Roger Pride is also quoted
"... we had land we could not use for a whole year. We still have the issue of meat that was taken from our cold rooms in case it was infected."
Hundreds of animals were slaughtered as a precautionary measure even though they were not infected. Emergencyand limited ring vaccination and the rapid on-site diagnostic tests that are used elsewhere could have prevented such unnecessary slaughter. Both IAH Pirbright and the Merial company (whose vital work on Bluetongue vaccine was summarily halted by DEFRA) strongly deny responsibility.
DEFRA was licensor and regulator of the Pirbright facility at the time and it is also named on the NFU claim. The government had been warned that cuts in funding were causing problems as this memorandum in the Science and Technology Committee's 4th report volume 2 shows.

October 17 2008 ~ IAH and Merial sued in test case over FMD leak at underfunded government lab

Reports have been appearing today about the legal claim now formally launched in the High Court by 14 livestock farmers whose businesses were affected by the 2007 Surrey FMD outbreak. The crisis followed the escape of ive FMD virus at Pirbright. ( see warmwell page of contemporary reports) Farming business and enterprise all across rural Britain faced financial ruin. How difficult it is for urban compatriots to comprehend the impact of movement restrictions and the cancellation of shows and country functions. The decision not to make use of emergency vaccination - when the conditions for doing so could not have been better - was, to many, a source of bitter disappointment. As we demonstrated last November, "Culling" is far too cosy a word to describe what goes on.
Journalists today are quoting Peter Kendall
"... this claim is about getting redress for those farmers... There are other countries around the world who look at their agriculture in a much more supportive way. And particularly if the government have been involved in the damage that's been incurred, you'd expect a much more sympathetic and helpful response ..."
However, that the IAH should be sued, when they did their best to warn of the consequences of underfunding ( as we have mentioned several times) seems unjust.

October 17 2008 ~ "...these laboratories .. in desperate need of investment"

The warnings from the IAH (memorandum at the end of the Science and Technology Committee's 4th report volume 2) make it quite clear that DEFRA was aware of the state of the labs:
"....The Visiting Group to the IAH in June 2006 noted that the equipment in these laboratories was in desperate need of investment, but this is not possible without additional funding from the Department."
Pirbright's pleas were ignored. As for Merial, the Spratt inquiry found no evidence to show culpability and a bitter by-product of the controversy was that - in spite of Professor Spratt's good sense - all work on the vitally needed Bluetongue vaccine at Merial ground to a halt for months.
The decision not to vaccinate led to the destruction of many healthy animals - such as those of Mr Emerson, one of the 14 farmers who are bringing this action. The way the outbreak was handled showed little understanding of modern technology nor of veterinary care. Once again, informed advice was ignored: it was all about protecting the UK's supposedly precious "FMD without vaccination" trading status. There should certainly have been compensation for official mistakes made - but blaming the very people whose advice was ignored seems somewhat unjust. Google links to the case.

October 12 2008 ~ "Inappropriate political decisions have led to the virtual wholesale dismantling of Veterinary Services."

Bernard Vallat: " Poor Veterinary Services governance is responsible for many problems. Inappropriate political decisions have led to the virtual wholesale dismantling of Veterinary Services, the results are catastrophic and immediate action is needed" (current FVE newsletter (pdf))
The Sunday Telegraph today recalls the FMD crisis of 2001 when all local vets were marginalised and "Defra officials would come and say it was their show":
"...The contiguous cull was a panic measure ....Farmers who resisted were subjected to dawn raids by government officials accompanied by police in riot gear. Up to 10 million animals were slaughtered ... An animal holocaust that left witnesses traumatised. ...there was complete intransigence. From the welfare point of view, it was nuts. The lunatics were running the asylum..."
The article recalls too that, as a result, the suicide rate among vets
" increased to four times the national average, and the method was always the same: the same lethal injection that they used to put animals down."
The article contends that these days, " it's not just the job that has changed, the diseases seem to be constantly adapting and evolving, too. Bluetongue....will not be eradicated in the foreseeable future."
The declining numbers of vets is a disaster for farmers in England. However, we note the Early Day Motion put forward by Elfyn Llwyd MP on a National Veterinary School for Wales is gathering MP support.

October 8/9 2008 ~ EUFMD says, "We NEED your opinion on priorities for new diagnostic kits"

From the EUFMD newsletter 3 (pdf) yesterday. Results of the online survey (presumably to promote penside antibody ELISAs and antigen testing) will be given in one week - and debated on Thursday 16th at EUFMD-Erice 2008 EuFMD survey on Priorities for New Diagnostic Tests for Foot-and-mouth Disease (FMD) Dr Ruth Watkins writes that, in her opinion, penside antibody testing is not necessary but
" penside PCR for virus RNA is essential."
Penside antigen testing has a limited role as it is confined to sampling lesions. Dr Watkins, referring to the UK outbreak in 2007:
"I pointed out the sparing of herds of cattle tested for viral RNA in 2007 by PCR, so that early or asymptomatic FMD infection was excluded."

October 8/9 2008 ~ The Global Control of FMD Tools, Ideas and Ideals

As we posted on September 2, the EUFMD (European commission for the control of foot and mouth) conference begins next week on the 14th October. It seems a great shame that so many of those with on the ground experience of the disease but no official capacity find it very difficult indeed either to spare the time or the expense involved to attend such conferences. However, we hear from the EUFMD secretariat today that they wished to send warmwell
" .... the links to the You tube videos already posted. Should you know others who could be interested in sending us a youtube video, please do send them our link as I am sure that this could be quite an innovative approach to increasing awareness."
Further details are to be found on this pdf file - and links to the YouTube videos about the control of foot and mouth disaster (a mixed bunch to say the least) already up on the internet, can be seen. It would be very cheering to know that an easy-to-watch and informed short video were posted there and - although the deadline for a prize may have passed- it may be that someone creative and knowledgeable could help. The brief video promoting vaccination looks very effective and humane - but its commentary is, unfortunately, unintelligible. Imperial College's short video of its work into new anti-viral drugs is interesting - but one remains baffled by the continuing refusal of the UK and EU to use the tried and tested vaccines and - even more baffling - the apparent continuing ignorance about existing rapid diagnostic testing by RT-PCR. However, results from the EUFMD online survey on priorities for new diagnostic kits (see above) will be discussed in Erice next week.

October 4 2008 ~ Mitchells returns to court in a few weeks

After several delayed judgements, Mitchells auction mart in Cockermouth who are suing the Government for £119,000 owed by DEFRA in unpaid fees and interest will attend another hearing in Manchester on October 21.
Mitchells carried out livestock valuations in 2001. Ever since, (like other companies many of which have simply folded) they have been in dispute with DEFRA over the level of payment due for this work. .The judge hearing the case in Manchester in July decided that a more detailed hearing called a Quantum Meruit was needed in order to determine a reasonable rate for the work that was done.
It may be remembered that in 2004 the JDM Accord case finally came to an end when JMD was paid the remaining £5m of the £7m cost of creating a burial pit at Ash Moor. (The pit was never used and it cost taxpayers a further £3 million to fill it in again.) In its reluctance to make full payment to the many firms involved in carrying out its policies, DEFRA spoke of widespread "fraud" - although in the end, of 1,200 cases investigated, the National Audit Office found that only 18 involved allegations of fraud, and six of those had already been dismissed by 2004.

October 4 2008 ~ "stunning, incisive and moving material.."

The authors of a new book, Animal Disease and Human Trauma, focusing on the "UK Foot and Mouth Disease Disaster of 2001" will be remembered for their research paper describing the social and psychological problems to emerge from those grim months, seven years ago. Their study, led by Maggie Mort of Lancaster University, catalogued extreme trauma, flashbacks, nightmares, uncontrollable emotion, conflict within communities and increased social isolation. It also looked at the longer term effects, finding continuing evidence of stress, anxieties about the disposal sites, loss of confidence in the Government and local authorities, confusion, bitterness and increased fear.
The flyer for Animal Disease and Human Trauma:
"...This book offers ways of thinking about disasters that are non-linear and non-prescriptive....this fascinating study explores the lived experience of disasters, looking at how daily lives intersect with dramatic events..... views disaster in its local specificities as well as the wider context of control..."
The 2005 research paper: Psychosocial effects of the 2001 UK foot and mouth disease epidemic in a rural population: qualitative diary based study showed very clearly that the FMD crisis of 2001 was not just a distressing animal disaster but a human tragedy whose repercussions continue to this day. (See also Amazon.co.uk)
As for the 2007 outbreak, we read that final foot-and-mouth restrictions in Surrey have been lifted at last. The Crawley Observer quotes Surrey County Council's trading standards manager, Peter Denard: "...DEFRA decided not to reimburse the county council and its partners for all the additional work we carried out in successfully containing the initial outbreak.." See also below

October 1 2008 ~ Nicky Paull, new president of the BVA, wants to provide the "political lobbying that the profession needs"

We read too on www.veterinarypracticenews.com, that during this next coming year, BVA will look into increasing membership, "by providing services and support that members want" and that it sees as its greatest challenge a new "communication and engagement with the profession in the whole of the United Kingdom"
See also the address given by outgoing president, Nick Blayney:
".... It is important that the Association is seen as a source of informed advice.... There are no areas of animal management that do not require DEFRA to obtain sound advice from the veterinary profession.."

Monday September 29 2008 ~ "... in the absence of sound veterinary advice, decisions may be made on the basis of short term financial expediency ... "

Nick Blayney's Presidential Address - BVA Congress 2008
"....There are no areas of animal management that do not require DEFRA to obtain sound advice from the veterinary profession. It is true that there are veterinary colleagues within DEFRA but there is also a need for external organisations to be able deliver advice on and, where necessary, constructive criticism of, DEFRA policy.
No sooner had my predecessor finished with FMD than I found myself embroiled in BTV8. This government, so fond of consultation, consultation, consultation, founded stakeholder groups. Surprisingly a veterinary surgeon was not invited to the core group in the first instance but representations from colleagues supported across several specialist groups secured a place at this important table....
The profession deserves to take more credit than I fear it will get for the leadership it gave its clients in industry to vaccinate.....
.. the bluetongue model has much to teach us about other aspects of our relationship with government and industry, especially relevant in this brave new world of responsibility and cost sharing. The invitations to sit on various stakeholder groups come frequently. ...There is generally no reimbursement ... The roles and responsibilities of veterinary participants at such meetings is the subject of discussion with Defra and obtaining clarity is essential...."
The address should be read in full. Interestingly, Mr Blayney says, "I refuse to use the word 'stakeholder'...".

September 23 2008 ~ Porton Down to get millions for renovation - and what of Pirbright?

We read in www.mlwmagazine.com that Porton Down laboratory is to be rebuilt. The cost of the project is expected to run into millions. Detailed plans are yet to be drawn up, but the HPA chairman, Sir William Stewart, says "we can assure it will not be done on the cheap; we are dealing with human diseases" implying that since the work is on human disease this justifies the costs involved. However - enlightened views now accept that human and animal disease is so closely linked as to need close cooperation from all experts in both fields - indeed this was the subject of the June conference at the Royal Society "One World, One Disease" - the need for integrated policies. As we have mentioned several times, it has been a dangerous false economy for Britain that the government has been so impervious to the pleas of those who forsaw the dangers of underfunding at facilities such as Porton and - particularly - Pirbright.

September 23 2008 ~ "striking lack of co-ordination between those funding and those running high containment facilities"

In June 2008, the all-party Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee 6th Report spoke of a "striking lack of co-ordination between those funding and those running high containment facilities", that the issues of adequate funding, coordination and security must be properly addressed and that an inter-agency body should be set up for
"the strategic planning and coordination of facilities dealing with the highest risk pathogens; long term funding to cover running costs; a single minister to take responsibility for co-ordinating biosecurity....." (see Telegraph for June 25)
So, new funds a plenty for Porton and delight for Sir William Stewart - but what of Pirbright and other facilities? Can anyone enlighten us?
(Interestingly, when on July 17 2001, Professor Sir William Stewart was questioned on the Today Programme about the new vaccine for anthrax at Porton, he expressed an opinion about animal disease too. When asked by Sue McGregor in July 2001 about the use of vaccine against foot and mouth, he replied, " That is a question you will have to ask the government not me...my own view is that it should have been used - but wasn't." See entry for Oct 16 2001)

September 22 2008 ~ "Remember this when you are next told that, for example, we cannot ban imports of livestock from EU countries affected by Bluetongue, because those are the rules; or that we cannot vaccinate against foot and mouth, because those are the rules."

The current Smallholders Online Newsletter No. 262
"Recent upheaval in the money markets on both sides of the Atlantic may seem a world away from smallholding - but you can't help noticing how US and UK authorities have moved so quickly to break their own rules and regulations that supposedly exist to preserve open competition in a free market. There's no money for animal health research facilities at Pirbright, yet billions are produced in a twinkling to nationalise Northern Rock. It was inconceivable that Lloyds TSB would be permitted to take over HBOS to create an uncompetitive mortgage market, yet overnight the deal is done with the government nodding approval.
What this clearly illustrates is a point raised before in this newsletter - namely, that rules are made to be broken. ....
In practice, rules only apply to law-abiding citizens, smaller companies - and smallholders. The big fish get away with whatever suits the government of the day, and rules are either bent or broken to achieve the desired results. This isn't cynicism - just realism."
Smallholders Online can be found at www.smallholders.org/ Yes. The "Rules is Rules" mindset should never put us off trying to change bad rules into good ones.

September 12 2008 ~ Of the utmost importance in any viable cost-sharing partnership in animal health policies

is fair performance benchmarks to be adhered to by both sides. If the government failed in any of its parts of the bargain, failed to meet its Performance Benchmarks, then payment could not be demanded. If farmers failed to keep to what had been jointly decided then there would be pre-agreed penalities.
There would be accountability.
The suggestion is that:
With all Performance Benchmarks met, by government and industry, the goal is to snuff out an outbreak in two weeks after diagnosis by active commitment of all sections of the industry and related industries.
Such a levy would give cause for real optimism. All those involved in farm to fork food production would share responsibility for safety and disease control.
But what farmers fear is that it will not be like this at all. The newly dreamed up registration scheme could cost cattle farmers as much as £30 a head, according to Kim Haywood. "Under current plans such a scheme would have to generate £425 million a year to fund Defra's unreformed Animal Health operation and then acquire a building for the proposed new body which could require a one-off payment of at least £150 million. On top of this, contingency funding to meet the expense of exotic disease outbreaks, like FMD, avian flu, bluetongue and swine fever, would have to be accumulated for research into exotic disease protection, also funded with levy proceeds too."
As the CLA expert says below, the ideal situation would be to " remove animal health and welfare from the political arena..."

September 9 2008 ~ " remove animal health and welfare from the political arena..."

A readable and urgent article by Caroline Cranbrook, (Vice-President Suffolk CLA and Chairman of the Eastern Region Grazing Forum), appeared on Saturday in the East Anglian Daily Times warning that vital grassland and grazing animals are, in East Anglia in particular, seriously under threat.
Confidence in livestock farming has been lost as a result of seemingly never ending new rules and regulations, so many of which
"... are time-consuming, costly and seem to be devised by people who know little of the realities of farming in Great Britain..."
Without grazing, the consequences for the landscape, for biodiversity, for tourism and for the local food chain, would be devastating.
"If livestock farming is to survive, government must lobby much harder in Europe to ensure that regulation is appropriate, proportionate, sensible - and affordable. Government must also allow the industry to take much more responsibility and control of animal disease and welfare."
One solution is to remove animal health and welfare from the political arena. The article tells us that the CLA economist, Professor Allan Buckwell, has suggested
"a new, independent, non-ministerial, non-departmental agency to deal with decision-making and policy implementation for all issues of animal health and welfare... It would obviously have to have the confidence of the industry and the public, with a 50:50 industry/government balance on the board."
Read Caroline Cranbrook's article in full.

September 8 2008 ~ "maximum gains from genetic modification are small, much lower than with either conventional breeding or agroecology-based techniques."

The Independent reports today that Sir David King will say in a speech tonight that "advanced approaches to agriculture, such as GM crops, are the only way Africa will be able to feed itself."
However, reports such as that by Aaron deGrassi.Genetically Modified Crops and Sustainable Poverty Alleviation in Sub Saharan Africa tell a somewhat different story. The deGrassi report evaluates experiences with genetically modified crops in Africa. One example it cites is GM sweet potato growing in Kenya. DeGrassi compares hyperbole in such headlines as "Transgenic Sweet Potato Could End Kenyan Famine" with reality on the ground.
"The [GM] sweet potato project [which may increase production by as much as 18%] is now nearing its twelfth year, and involves over 19 scientists (16 with PhDs) and an estimated 6 million dollars. In contrast, conventional sweet potato breeding in Uganda was able in just a few years to develop with a small budget a well-liked virus-resistant variety with yield gains of nearly 100%."
DeGrassi writes,
"There has been a great deal of excitement over these new engineered crops despite their low suitability. The maximum gains from genetic modification are small, much lower than with either conventional breeding or agroecology-based techniques. The heavy publicity may be due to the politicized international debates about genetically engineered crops. In particular, biotechnology firms have been eager to use philanthropic African projects for public relations purposes. Such public legitimacy may be needed by companies in their attempts to reduce trade restrictions, biosafety controls, and monopoly regulations." (Executive Summary)
Sir David King is, of course, entitled to his view - but he is a figure whose influence has led to effects we have been grieved to see since the disastrous foot and mouth policies of 2001.

September 1 2008 ~ "This foot in mouth disease modelling...."

" foot in mouth"... A typo in the report from ABC net.au might strike some as both Freudian and apposite. Mathematical modelling of Foot and Mouth disease inevitably fails to take into account the reality on the ground. Only when models are checked and rechecked against reality - and then fine-tuned - may they eventually become useful. This was one of the tragic mistakes of 2001.
In the UK the quotation from Dr David Schley in the recent BBC article"Model targets foot-and-mouth risk" tells us that researchers at Pirbright have created a simple risk model, " by combining weather and livestock information collected during the 1967 UK foot-and-mouth outbreak and have suggested in the Journal of the Royal Society that it may be possible to automate the system."
However, they still have problems actually knowing where stock are grazing - and in real life, even hedges surrounding a field can divert a plume of virus. As Dr Schley and his Pirbright colleagues admit, "The level of information that I would like the UK to aspire to has already been achieved by other countries - including New Zealand."

September 1 2008 ~ "information that it appears great care was taken to conceal...."

On the question of the "level of detail", one eminent correspondent writes to say he wishes that DEFRA reports could achieve the same level of detail in their reports as that the Israelis did ".... in the true "state of the art" epidemiology report at this link: www.vetserveng.moag.gov.il (pdf).
He adds that with regard to the 2007 FMD outbreak, such accuracy of detail "...might reveal some information that it appears great care was taken to conceal - i.e., with regard to minimizing the actual number of affected herds and pasturages by including outbreaks in two separate herds on two separate properties...because cattle at both affected sites happened to be owned by a single individual."
As warmwell.com noted on November 5th 2007
"There were 24 individual locations where killing took place as a result of the 8 "IP"s. ...killing took place on 24 holdings plus at least 9 more, and even more than that if any of the SOS and DCs were made up of multiple holdings..."
The heartbreaking truth is that last year's escape of virus from Pirbright could have been cleared up swiftly. We had the exact strain of vaccine and (not surprisingly) it was on hand from the start - in time to have created a proper firebreak. Conditions couldn't have been better for a test of a more humane policy. Yet instead, preemptive killing took place and on a minimum of 33 holdings. The distress this caused is documented on the Surrey outbreak pages
Parliamentary Questions asked at the time reveal these distressing statistics. Hundreds of the 2160 animals summarily killed in last year's Surrey outbreak were found to be free of disease.

August 22 2008 ~ "the government should abandon slaughter in favour of vaccination"

The Surrey Advertiser reports on the continuing trauma of Rob Lawrence, of Hardwick Park Farm who lost so many animals in September 2007. He told the paper "I don't believe Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) could have done anything differently."
One feels enormous sympathy for farmers like the Lawrences - but not everyone has such blind faith in outdated methods of control. Modern FMD vaccines are excellent, and vaccines for the exact strain (unsurprisingly since the strain of virus concerned was being used at Pirbright to make vaccine when it escaped) was ready to use straight away. Only the political will was lacking. State of the art RT-PCR on-site diagnostic kits such as the Rapid were ignored in favour of the UK's own penside test - and since such tests, unlike the Rapid, are not yet capable of detecting virus before clinical signs are apparent, many hundreds of animals in Surrey were, as in 2001, killed on suspicion - only to be discovered later to have been uninfected. It is therefore a relief that in the same Surrey Advertiser article, the eminent vet, Carl Boyde, speaks out in favour of vaccination and against slaughter.
"There's a great deal of panic around this disease. I think we should have a new attitude towards animals, starting with the view that slaughter is wrong..."
(A day-by-day account of the 2007 outbreak can be read here.)

August 21 2008 ~ Mitchells Auction Mart case against DEFRA delayed yet again

See below Mitchells carried out livestock valuations in 2001. Ever since, they have been in dispute with DEFRA over the level of payment due for this work. .The judge hearing last month's case in Manchester has decided that a more detailed hearing called a Quantum Meruit is needed in order to determine a reasonable rate for the work that was done. This will not take place until October

August 21 2008 ~ "continued welfare unfriendly use of double tagging ..."

From five years ago, an email from a farmer: (Extract from full email)
Most farmers I know do their very best for their livestock and try their absolute best to comply with the regulations - some of which are contradictory and some against the welfare of the animal (double tagging of calves and sheep is an example). ... 33 years ago my husband talked of getting out of farming.... I wish I had had the courage to speak up and encourage him to get out whilst the going was good...."
And a letter from an eminent vet to the Veterinary Record - and its enormous good sense has yet to be acted upon. Extract from ( full letter):
"..The continued welfare unfriendly use of double tagging together with the added trauma of losses to individual farmers...could be easily avoided. ....
DEFRA still have not attempted to validate rapid technologies available ..."
It is now 2008. We hoped the passage of time would bring about a new understanding and helpfulness from those who continue to impose welfare unfriendly regulations .... (More on double tagging)

August 20 2008 ~ EU to investigate the issue of composting of animal by-products in the UK

On August 9 we reported that DEFRA assurances about safety were being officially questioned. Relying on a mathematical risk analysis produced by a single scientist in 2002, Defra maintained that there was only a " low risk" of animal disease such as Foot and Mouth from composting meat, blood and feathers, and then spreading the results on farmland. (see alsoYorkshire Post)
DEFRA championed meat composting when it became politically expedient to find a way of dealing with the excess of waste food formerly turned into swill (a practice banned even though the FMD crisis of 2001 was never proved to be linked to swill) - but as Robert Persey wrote last year,
"..... the Government has been allowing the composting of meat and feathers on farms in open windrows. Incredibly some of these activities are taking place on livestock farms..."
He explained that animal by-product composting can only be safe if done in vessels within enclosed facilities, operating at negative air pressure with the exhausted air being chemically scrubbed.
We now hear that EU Commissioner Vassiliou has written to say that the Commission's Food and Veterinary Office in their forthcoming mission to the UK from 17 to 26 November 2008 will cover the issue of the composting of animal by-products.

August 18/19 2008 ~ Can the EU really - possibly - not know that such a small portable machine has been in existence for years?

According to the BBC website, the EU is to fund a £2.3 million project to develop a diagnostic machine for H5N1. UK experts have called for a national surveillance programme to detect H5N1 cases in Indonesians and Dr Alan McNally, from Nottingham Trent University, "believes his technology could make a difference."
However, Dr Roger Breeze tells us that the Indonesian government and US Department of Defense Global Emerging Infections Surveillance System (GEISS) have already been monitoring, detecting and responding to avian influenza H5N1 in Indonesia for several years. GEISS uses PCR devices in labs and also the Idaho Technology RAPID for portable field detection.
The EU, according to the BBC, "hopes to come up with a version of the machine that can fit within a briefcase" Dr Breeze points out that the RAPID "is sold in a small suitcase." As for rapid diagnostic testing on-site for foot and mouth: "I am not sure how small the EU briefcase is, but Smiths Detection has been selling a portable device for on farm detection of foot and mouth disease and avian influenza that until today I would have sworn under oath was briefcase sized..."

August 18/19 2008 ~"... It has been possible and practical to use the RAPID device to detect avian influenza virus on farm and in the field since 2000."

Dr Breeze recently visited the laboratory at Kamphaeng Phet, in northwest Thailand, operated by the Royal Thai Army and the US Defense Department and his email, complete with links, explains that when Indonesian patients are PCR positive (the hospital lab returns results within 2 hours), a mobile team then travels to the affected village to examine and test others with just such a portable RT-PCR kit as the EU now declares it "hopes" to develop.
"... I asked the lab director if the results of PCR tests performed in the village were regarded by public health authorities with the same validity as those conducted in the lab itself. She replied,"Of course. It is the same people performing the test in both places using the same controls, test reagents and equipment. Why would we not treat them identically?"
Read in full

August 11/12 2008 ~ "a lifetime's work taken away in hours"

Monday's Times published a letter from the NFU Chairman for Surrey reminding readers that it is a year since the 2007 FMD crisis devastated farming in that county - and far beyond. It was "traced to a drainage system in disrepair after years of underinvestment by the Government."
A year later there is "no sign of any compensation for farmers other than the paltry sum paid to those who had the trauma of seeing their animals killed, for most a lifetime's work taken away in hours..." and the letter compares this with what the government has spent in, for example, rescuing Northern Rock.
Warmwell.com followed the crisis in full, updating every day even before the virus was traced to Pirbright. Those reports began here on August 3 2007 (scroll upwards) and constitute a record that may be referred to when it is claimed that the lessons of 2001 were learned. Sadly, they were not.

August 9 ~ DEFRA assurances about the "low risk" of animal disease from animal by-products are at last being officially questioned

Before 2001 the two million tonnes or so of waste food was being recycled annually by swill feeders - but after the swill ban hastily put in place to give credance to the never-proved notion that FMD must have begun in pigswill, waste was diverted to landfill. DEFRA championed meat composting when it became politically expedient to find a way of dealing with such waste food - but there have been grim lapses of safety. As Robert Persey wrote last year,
"......Recently the Government has been allowing the composting of meat and feathers on farms in open windrows. Incredibly some of these activities are taking place on livestock farms with the connivance of state vets.."
He pointed out that the Animal By Products Order 2005 does not allow waste meat onto premises where livestock are kept. The CVO and the Secretary of State were sent photographic evidence of such waste sited right next to cows. The Environment Agency seems not to have been alarmed by photos of unprocessed feathers, rats and ponds of pollution liquor. Now that a new safety review is being commissioned,the measures that Mr Persey has urged all along may be enforced:
"Composting should be in vessel within enclosed facilities, operating at negative air pressure with the exhausted air being chemically scrubbed."
(See also the Yorkshire Post today.

August 9 ~ "The Vet lab virologists are producing fine data on the sequences of the viruses and the politicians seem conveniently deaf to the meaning of this"

As we have seen with Bluetongue, once the political will is there, vaccine production and implementation can go into overdrive even when vaccines are new.
It would be within our power to control animal diseases if policies were enforced that were based on sound veterinary science rather than on trade considerations. As far as bird flu is concerned, the official line always tends to blame "wild birds" rather than consider the stress of intensive methods of rearing - but H5N1 is an especial risk in high density production, as we have seen in the UK. No wild birds have yet been shown to have been implicated in spread. Whatever the vector, vaccination protects against the virus (see for example this webpage). Much as we abhor intensive poultry production, if birds - even in intensive premises - were all vaccinated, and subsequently challenged by wild virus (see email)
"...any flock or herd which has been vaccinated will have only mild clinical disease - which most us thought was the object of the exercise....any virus infection introduced would have low flock spread with little if any subsequent shedding into the environment."
As for people who actually care about the welfare of their birds,
"Vaccine for all the smallholders' birds would be very effective in preserving them clinically well - and in lower density flocks transfer of wild type virus would be minimal or none. The Vet lab virologists are producing fine data on the sequences of the viruses and the politicians seem conveniently deaf to the meaning of this."
(Read in full)

6 August 2008 ~ Continuing deep concern about the siting of the US National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility on the mainland

US Congressman, Brad Miller, is quoted at www.indyweek.com:
".... sober, serious concerns about the facility that DHS (i.e. Department of Homeland Security) has not satisfied.
If democracy means anything, local elected officials speak for the people of their community, and local elected officials in Granville County now oppose bringing the facility to Butner. ...
I continue to believe that we must do the research that would be conducted at the proposed facility to protect public health and our food supply, whether at the current location at Plum Island or elsewhere, and that wherever the research is done it must be done safely."
See also other recent postings

Aug 2 2008 ~ Four year funded project on diagnosis ended on July 31

Two days ago the "LAB-ON-SITE" project to improve diagnosis of nine diseases on OIE List A came to an end.
The Labonsite website mentions the "combination of the development of rapid, simple pen-side tests, and the application of new advanced high-tech approaches" - but it is hard to judge whether advanced high-tech technology was envisaged for both the pen-side diagnostics and the central laboratories.
The poster produced at the end of the project mentions
"....simple "on-site" diagnostic methods.... novel, highly sensitive, specific, high-throughput and robust methods for central institutes..... simply equipped field laboratories ....."
In the EU, penside tests have been developed to test for antigen only.
Reference Laboratories may be understandably jealous of their position and status and would certainly not want to find themselves by-passed. However, FMD and other List A diseases cannot be rapidly controlled if samples from animals not yet showing clinical symptoms still have to be transported long distance to such laboratories for definitive analysis.
We know, for example, that "a highly sensitive and specific one-step multiplex RT-PCR assay has been developed and standardised for the simultaneous and differential detection of the most important vesicular viruses affecting livestock." ( abstract) Can such as this not be used rapidly in the field, as in the former Soviet Bloc? Comment would be gratefully received.

Aug 2 2008 ~ A "specific web-site for knowledge communication" was one of the objectives of Work Package 9..

..of the four year EU project mentioned above - but such knowledge that appeared seemed to be communicated sparingly and somewhat erratically. A new site, http://foot-and-mouth.org/ is to replace it. It may perhaps disseminate more useful information about FMD and about the scientific basis for future policies to control Transboundary Animal Diseases.

29 July 2008 ~ Livestock Reduction?

Are we close to the serious proposal of getting rid of cows because the emissions produced by farm animals are - according to certain scientific papers - harmful to the planet? Some long-term readers may remember the rumours - denied strongly by Wolfgang Dreissl-Dörfler, the MEP from Bavaria who insisted that there was no EU plan to cut UK livestock numbers - of instances of cheques given to farmers during FMD 2001 inscribed with the phrase: "EU Livestock Reduction Fund".
The numbers of farm animals are indeed being reduced fast - by disease spread by globalisation, by outdated culling policies in tandem with no attempt made to protect them nor fight the disease at source - and by the sheer weariness of decent farmers harried by rising costs and hounded by urban bureaucrats.
If free ranging farm animals were to disappear and human-scale farms entirely replaced by factories, the potential profits from genetic manipulation and cloning techniques could, of course, be considerable.

July 25 2008 ~ Foot and Mouth Culling, Transport, Disposal, Cleansing and Disinfection - sanitised to "Field Operations"

Although not easy to find on the DEFRA foot and mouth disease pages, Defra is, "in accordance with our legislative obligations under section 14a of the Animal Health Act 1981", consulting on its 2008 version of the Contingency Plan for Exotic Animal Diseases. See webpage
. Those of us who, for well over seven years, have regretted the waste and illogicality of a national killing policy when the boon of modern technology offers humane and effective alternatives can only wonder at the mentality that ignores them still. No one bothers to deny anymore that modern vaccines are excellent In spite of our willing rush to produce and use new vaccines against Bluetongue, tried and tested FMD vaccines continue to be avoided for purely protectionist reasons in the EU. Lip service only is paid to them still. Similarly, easy-to-use kits employed on site for rapid diagnostic testing and linked to a central database have been used in the Eastern Bloc countries for some time - and yet we still have not caught up.
The consultation lasts until October 10th and what changes there are are apparently all tabled here. Included is an Orwellian revision. For "Culling, Transport, Disposal, Cleansing and Disinfection" with all the connotations of grief, terror, blood and misery those words evoke, now read "Field Operations".

July 25 2008 ~ "Inhibition of foot-and-mouth disease virus replication in vitro and in vivo by small interfering RNA"

The abstract of a new paper by Wang Pengyan, Ren Yan, Guo Zhiru and Chen Chuangfu in Virology Journal 2008 is likely to be of interest to those who understand the virology. Thanks to FMD news for this link.

July 19 2008 ~ "Why does it only get worse? After BSE, FMD, Bluetongue I always thought : that's it, we've hit the bottom now. Beggars belief, it seems there is no end in sight."

One much respected and successful commercial farmer, referring to the TB crisis among other things, wrote today:
"It all boils down to movements of animals on a wide scale. I feel the trade with animals, others than pedigree for breeding, should be prohibited as soon as possible. Moving them around in your own country is dangerous enough but sending them abroad is causing havoc and misery, for the animals and farmers."
Not everyone would agree of course. Yet importing food carries problems - and, in the other direction, the one case of the exported calves to the Netherlands and its fallout, is enough on its own to suggest that moving food animals on a massive scale can create far reaching economic problems. Then there are the rogue traders who care nothing for animal welfare and who ignore the extreme bureaucracy designed to make trade safe. Movements of animals by ignorant, greedy or cruel traders can cause animal misery and disease wherever they occur. Adequate checks are very hard to carry out. The present food crisis is beginning to make those not in denial realise that the present system of dependence on global trade is going to have to change fast. Food security in all its aspects has become a most urgent issue for Britain as well as for the rest of the world.

Tuesday 15th July 2008 ~ "A shift from an industrialised agriculture system to one based on ecologically sound principles and free from petro-chemical inputs..."

The House of Commons All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil has published its first report. See peak oil pages. Building on the advice of experts in international development its findings are as relevant to the affluent West as to the 'developing' world. It quotes a recent UNESCO statement:
"The status quo is no longer an option. We must develop agriculture that is less dependent on fossil fuels, favours the use of locally available resources and explores the use of natural processes such as crop rotation and use of organic fertilisers"
and agrees that ".... The food crisis is set to deepen if modern agriculture remains reliant on fossil fuels..."
The page 16 section on Resilient food production advocates "independence from external suppliers of seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and water, .... builds resilience and stronger local economies, health and wellbeing." Interestingly it appears to concur with the view that
'External Input' agricultural models of Green Revolution and genetic engineering technologies fare poorly compared with 'Internal Input' ecological agriculture, where productivity is based upon biodiversity and full and efficient utilisation of biological resources.."
The report is a timely acknowledgement that after the end of cheap oil and gas, business as usual is not an option. Nor can GM technology (see below) ever replace time honoured ways of working with nature.

July 12 ~ Rich enough to import sufficient food? For how long?

Suzanne Greenhill says in her Telegraph letter today:
".... We are currently importing 40 per cent of our food and this is set to increase as more farmers quit."
She adds that if the annual numbers continue at the present rate there will be no farmers left at all in Britain. "The EU and our Government are still stuck in the policy era of beef and butter mountains, and telling us we are rich enough to import sufficient food. We are continuing to pay farmers to remove livestock and act as park wardens rather than be allowed to produce food. What a disastrous waste. Gordon Brown needs to look in his own back yard and stop lecturing the public on food waste..."

July 6 2008 ~ "Plum Island is the clear choice for the NBAF, and Homeland Security should opt to build it there."

Many thanks to FMD news for alerting us to a link on the subject of the proposed new high-security $451 million laboratory in the US that is to replace the world famous but ageing laboratory at Plum Island. www.onlineathens.com David Lee, University of Georgia's vice president for research is quoted as saying he favours ".. building the NBAF on Plum Island if that New York location is the safest place for it.
"If DHS believes Plum Island is truly going to be significantly safer, they should choose to build it there. I believe it would only be incrementally safer."
Plum Island is protected by more than a mile of water, and the area is home to few livestock that could catch the dreaded, highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease - facts noted in the Homeland Security report. "It would be irresponsible and basically abuse of trust in the government" to build it elsewhere, he said...." Read in full and see also below.

July 1 2008 ~ Mitchells of Cockermouth is suing Defra for more than £100,000 owed from 2001

Many will recall that one of the many miseries of 2001 was the refusal of DEFRA to settle bills from the contractors who had worked so hard for them during the crisis. Many of the smaller firms who could not meet the costs of taking legal action accepted ridiculously low payments or simply gave up. (relevant pages).
In 2004 JDM Accord was eventually paid the remaining £5m of the £7m cost of creating a burial pit at Ash Moor (it was never used and it cost taxpayers a further £3 million to fill it in again.) In its reluctance to make full payment to the many firms involved, DEFRA spoke of widespread "fraud" - although in the end, of 1,200 cases investigated, the National Audit Office found that only 18 involved allegations of fraud, and six of those had already been dismissed by 2004
Mitchells carried out livestock valuations in 2001. Ever since, they have been in dispute with DEFRA over the level of payment due for this work. Now, seven years later, they will finally take their case to Manchester High Court to try to resolve it. (More) UPDATE July 2 Cumberland News
UPDATE July 11 Cumberland News "The judge in the case of an auction mart suing the Government over unpaid foot and mouth fees has reserved judgement until later this month. Mitchells in Cockermouth claims it is owed £119,000 by Defra in unpaid fees and interest for valuations of condemned flocks in 2001. The week-long trial at Manchester High Court finished on Monday and the judge is expected to make a decision by the end of July."

June 25 2008 ~ "striking lack of co-ordination" between those funding and those running high containment facilities

Several media today report on the findings of the all-party Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee (This used to be called simply the Science and Technology Committee a perhaps significant name change.) The report looked into biosecurity at government-run high containment laboratories. The Guardian reports: "a serious shortfall in funding for maintenance had to be rectified to prevent another Pirbright-style incident. The accidental release of the foot-and-mouth virus in Surrey led to the slaughter of livestock on surrounding farms and a freeze on the movement of animals, costing farmers millions in lost exports alone. "It is critical that such an incident does not happen again," the report said...."

June 25 2008 ~ The completed report says that the issues of adequate funding, coordination and security must be properly addressed.

An inter-agency body should be set up for
"the strategic planning and coordination of facilities dealing with the highest risk pathogens; long term funding to cover running costs; a single minister to take responsibility for co-ordinating biosecurity; and that all those working with the most deadly pathogens can be reliably security-vetted." (Telegraph)
It was pleasing to hear that the Chairman, Phil Willis, praised the personnel at Pirbright who, as he says, "do a fantastic job, working in the facilities they have got...." However - as we too have mentioned several times, it has been a dangerous false economy for the government to have been so tight-fisted with funding when animal and human welfare are at stake. Some may remember the Sun's somewhat premature headline "Defra not to blame for FMD" back in March when the committee was still in the early stage of asking questions. Phil Willis: "The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at Pirbright highlights that in the long run, proper regulation, running and maintenance of high containment facilities is considerably cheaper than remedying a breach of bio-containment."

June 23 2008 ~ "ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets..."

An Associated Press article relates how a recent U.S. government exercise in FMD control, "Crimson Sky", ended with "fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets..."
Available portable diagnostic tests are now at such a pitch of rapid efficiency that "running out of bullets" is an obscene notion. Demonstrated to me in the lobby of the Hotel First Euroflat in Brussels last October was a toaster-sized machine using quality-controlled, internationally consistent, standardised reagents and protocols, able to identify FMD before clinical signs appear, giving results within an hour and using GPS and the internet to pinpoint disease for the control centre. After 5 minutes I was trained in its use myself. Such tests were available in 2001 and have been successfully in use for some time now in several former Soviet Bloc countries under the guidance of Dr Roger Breeze. In 2003 Dr Breeze wrote U.S. Agricultural and Food Security: Who Will Provide the Leadership? Who, indeed? Not Professor (Sir) Roy Anderson nor Professor (Sir) David King - still, it seems, trying to persuade anyone who will listen that the carnage and bloody chaos of 2001 was all for the best. (See also below)

June 23 2008 ~ "if foot-and-mouth does get out, what does that mean to these sites?"

In the US, there are still 5 potential locations for the new high-security $451 million laboratory that is to replace the world famous laboratory at Plum Island. If the lab is built in the middle of land where susceptible animals are grazing, what happens in the event of a leak such as happened at Pirbright in 2007? The sixth option would be, of course, to build the new research lab on Plum Island itself.
According to the Associated Press on the subject of the 1,005-page Homeland Security Department report, it is calculated that
".... economic losses in an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could surpass $4 billion if the lab were built near livestock herds in Kansas or Texas... That would be nearly $1 billion higher than the government's estimate of losses blamed on a hypothetical outbreak from its existing laboratory on Plum Island, N.Y.....The threat from fire and explosion would be diminished for the government's isolated laboratory on Plum Island "due to the low likelihood of any disease getting off of the island...."
See also below

June 21 2008 ~ DEFRA won't help towards Surrey's £250,000 FMD bill.

The BBC reports that Surrey County Council said it was disappointed not to be reimbursed for the hard work put in to stop the spread of the disease. DEFRA retorted that local authorities already had funding for emergencies - forgetting perhaps that six months ago, government funding to local authorities for animal health and welfare was cut by about 12%. DEFRA:
"... Where local authorities act during an emergency, they do so on their own responsibility rather than on the instructions of Defra."
So there we are. It all comes down to responsibility. The leak from Pirbright was not the government's responsibility, urgent funding for Pirbright (see below) was not their responsibility and the huge bill caused by Pirbright's poor state was not the government's responsibility. But what was the government's responsibility was making all the decisions, refusing to vaccinate and turning its deaf ear to expert advice. For the government, "responsibility" means that the costs of their own policies and muddled responses are met by others. Despite the endless stream of regulations making farmers and managers ever more accountable, DEFRA and the government are not, it seems, ever to be held responsible themselves. (This paper shows what would be a saner approach to industry cost sharing and governmental responsibility.)

June 14 2008 ~ Vets "just walking away from large animal work..." Nick Blayney

We read in the Press and Journal (Scotland) that the President of the BVA points out the illogicality of a government which cuts the profession off from making money from vet medicines and yet expects it to give its services cheap for vital surveillance work of benefit to all.
"Some vets are making less than the minimum wage to undertake testing and this is not acceptable. If government determines that the profession should not subsidise services from the sale of drugs then it cannot expect vets to subsidise the routine testing of livestock for reasons of human health, or from other services within their practices."
Livestock farmers, having to contend with rocketing fuel prices, huge increases in feed costs and all the depressed profits caused by the UK policies on such animal illnesses as foot and mouth and bluetongue, are now thinking twice before calling out a vet. Disastrously little has been done since, back in 2003, the EFRA Select Committee called on the government to provide incentives for students to become large animal vets. Where vets are now not regularly going onto farms, the routine surveillance they used to do while there is simply not happening.

Monday 8 June ~ "... if the lab comes to Kansas it will be surrounded by agricultural production.." says professor at Kansas State

Kansas State University (like Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas) is still very keen to have the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, the $451 million lab that is to replace Plum Island. According to www.kansas.com a decision on the site is expected later this year, and the new lab could be operating by 2013. The head of the university's Political Science Department, is quoted: "... There are a few people with qualms about it."
Before it happened in 2007, few had any qualms about a possible virus escape at Pirbright - but the GAO report seems ready to learn the lessons of that traumatic episode - as see below.
". ... there will always be some risk of a release from any biocontainment facility, most of the experts we spoke with told us that an island location can provide additional protection..."
It seems to many of us incredible, that the US, like the UK, seems unable to let go of the mindset of mass kill in the event of FMD. But a reluctance to use available technology to protect and prevent means that an escape from a mainland lab could, as at Pirbright, be disastrous for the animals and farmers in the vicinity and beyond. (More on FMD vaccination. More on rapid on-site diagnostic technology)

June 3 2008 ~ Why is it not possible to find 30 billion dollars a year to allow 862 million hungry people to feed themselves?

In an impassioned speech at the opening of the Rome world food crisis Summit, the FAO Director-General, Jacques Diouf , has appealed to world leaders. See UN's reliefweb website. Extract:
"... in 2006 the world spent US$1 200 billion on arms while food wasted in a single country could cost US$100 billion and excess consumption by the world's obese amounted to US$20 billion.
".. how can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find US$30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people.."
The crisis was, he said, a 'chronicle of disaster foretold'. He found it "incomprehensible" that subsidies worth 11-12 billion US dollars in 2006 were used to turn cereals from human consumption into biofuel. He also deplored that in these days of globalization there has been
"no significant investment in the prevention of a long list of major trans-boundary animal diseases, starting with Newcastle and foot-and-mouth diseases"
In 2006 alone in the OECD countries, 372 billion US dollars were used to support agriculture and thus distort world markets.
As this website has come to realise over the past seven years, greed for profits and protectionism blinds itself to all other considerations - even human hunger and animal welfare.

June 2 2008 ~ "...regular contact with stakeholders, and being as open as possible about current and future policy-making, has contributed to creating a climate of trust" CVO report 2007 (page 21)

The pdf file Animal Health 2007 The Report of the Chief Veterinary Officer has quietly arrived on the DEFRA website today. Topics covered in the 2007 report include bovine TB ("Defra aims to work in partnership with interested organisations to bring about a sustainable improvement in control of the disease by 2015...") the outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease ("A great deal has been done since 2001 on building relationships with a wide range of non-governmental organisations...".) Avian Flu ("Defra's contingency plan was implemented effectively to control the outbreak...") and Bluetongue ("..there is a real concern that the disease will become more widespread and enter Wales..") and progress on the UK's Responsibility and Cost Sharing Programme ("Significant progress has been made in 2007 to take the responsibility and cost sharing agenda forward...")
"a challenging year due to the combined impact of Avian Influenza, Bluetongue and Foot and Mouth Disease," says the Foreward, signed by Fred Landeg. In the sole reference to her in the report, he expresses gratitude to " in particular, our former Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Debby Reynolds." (Link to pdf report)

May 31 2008 ~ "Animal vaccinations are among the most effective, successful tools...."

Many of us are cheered today by the news that the US Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) is reinforcing the use of animal disease vaccines in its latest Issue Paper. Dr Mark Jackwood of the University of Georgia who chaired the task force that produced the paper, says
"Current public health threats posed by the potential spread of highly infectious disease agents between animals and humans, as well as the emergence of new diseases, impact animal agriculture significantly. Animal vaccinations are among the most effective, successful tools for dealing with these concerns."
The Paper, Vaccine Development Using Recombinant DNA Technology , is available on the CAST website at www.cast-science.org, along with other publications from the organization. As one eminent emailer writes, "I really feel that we are winning the vaccination 'battle' - the next round will involve changes at EU level to encourage a vaccination -based approach." More at www.animalpharmnews.com

May 29 2008 ~"We changed the policy and brought foot and mouth under control and the Cabinet was somewhat grateful"

Any warmwell reader who heard Sir David King on Material World (BBC Listen Again) may have been rendered speechless this afternoon. It was a travesty of the truth about FMD 2001 - and an extraordinary demonstration of the arrogance of some scientists. There is much reference to the importance of "rigour, respect and responsibility", but in 2001 where was respect for the views of scientists, who had genuine understanding of foot and mouth, from the CSA? All that challenged mass slaughter and advocated a humane and veterinary solution was swept away by the refusal of the Science Group, who were swallowing, hook line and sinker, the flawed mathematical modelling, to consider the grim reality of the "policy".
One emailer, luckily still able to find words, writes, ""If foot and mouth disease was already established in various parts of the UK some time before it was officially recognised, the concept of exponential evolution would be incorrect and the mathematical models, that so impressed Professor King, similarly incorrect. As the previous Chief Scientific Adviser (David King) to Government believes in scientific challenge he might care to spend some of his free time considering this possibility by analysing the data." (See also a blog entry on this subject last year)

May 29 2008 ~ "a global problem of supply and demand - not just in the short term but the medium term and the long term": Gordon Brown

Peak Oil is the point where demand outstrips supply - and Mr Brown is acknowledging its arrival with his words yesterday when he added that "everyone must learn to live with high oil prices" despite hopes of more supplies from the North Sea and Saudi Arabia. A further 2p increase on fuel tax is to be shelved, it seems - but anger at the rising prices was put in perspective by Simon Jenkins in the Times last week:
"...The truth is that 99% of the population has no clue what these phenomena mean. It treats prices like earthquakes or tsunamis, nature acting beyond the power of mankind.... ignorance extends to the top....Ruth Kelly wants to continue the explosion in leisure travel by indulging it with new airports and untaxed fuel. She dare not admit that travel must one day revert to being a luxury. ..... We let ministers take economic decisions off the tops of their heads with no idea of consequence... the good ship Gaia, planet Earth, is traumatising its passengers into husbanding its scarce resources. Above all they must ration living space, for which the West has been appallingly greedy, and carbon fuel, of which the same is true..."
As Simon Jenkins also points out
"Need is not an economic concept, only demand..."
If our hunch for the past four years is right and we are looking at some drastic changes brought about by the end of cheap oil, our masters might start to educate us - and in the process, themselves - in telling the difference. Since intensive farming equipment is so dependent on fossil fuel for its machinery, transport and non-organic fertilisers, let us learn to cultivate our gardens, and encourage the human scale farming so happily embraced by smallholders, by the Transition movement and other far-sighted ones.

May 28 2008 ~ Surrey County Council will prosecute neither IAH Pirbright nor Merial over FMD leak last August

The Telegraph reported this afternoon that Surrey CC has "called for tougher measures which would ensure that where two laboratories shared facilities, one should have ultimate responsibility and accountability for the site....."
So once again, as in Albert and the Lion, "no one was really to blame..." Unless, of course, one remembers the pleas from Pirbright to DEFRA and to the Treasury that were ignored. They were alerted to the desperate lack of funding long before the virus leak - as the memorandum at the end of the Science and Technology Committee's 4th report volume 2) makes clear. Although the Department was able to find a total of £418 million to pay the EU fine for the RPA delays, in 2006 it could not find the resources to keep its own dangerous house in order when it mattered - and now washes its hands of the financial fallout from the leaked virus. Interestingly, the Welsh NFU president, Dai Davies, is quoted today (:www.dailypost.co.uk)
"The whole issue of responsibility and cost sharing must be viewed against the government's continued refusal to accept their responsibility for the release of the FMD virus from the Pirbright facility."
Country Land & Business Association deputy president William Worsley is quoted on farming uk: "This is extremely worrying .... will set a dangerous precedent for similar situations caused by the negligence of public bodies. It suggests public bodies are not subject to the same level of accountability as everyone else. This is despite a seemingly endless stream of regulations affecting rural businesses that makes managers ever more accountable for their actions."

May 28 2008 ~ The next wave of animal diseases - just waiting to happen

Paul van Aarle of Intervet is quoted in yesterday's Agarisch Dagblad as saying that after Bluetongue, Rift Valley Fever and West Nile-virus are likely to arrive in Europe before long. According to Dr van Aarle, both national and European money must be made available. The control of animal disease should be placed much higher on the economic agenda. Since the lack of funding for research means that 2 or 3 years elapse before vaccines can be developed, the delay in giving the vaccine companies a clear mandate meant that, in spite of the best efforts of the companies, vaccine against BTV-8 has only just begun arriving in European countries.
We see also from a recent ProMed posting that yet another emerging orbivirus disease, namely Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is suspected of having advanced closer to south-eastern Europe: "As mentioned in our recent posting 20080522.1693... Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), which has the potential to affect cattle seriously...."
All this makes us, yet again, feel wonderment and frustration that the already existing and highly effective vaccines against FMD were not immediately used in 2001 and 2007. As Bernard Vallat, the Director General of the OIE, said in a recent Editorial , compared "to the social, economic and environmental cost of disasters resulting from epizootics.." the cost of preventing crises is insignificant.

May 28 2008 ~ OIE President Barry O'Brien's frustration that countries re-invent the wheel instead of cooperating on animal health

FWI quotes his speech in London last week. He said, "We have the tools to be able to address these risks. But it does frustrate me that countries spend so much time reinventing the wheel. There is also too much conflict and competition between agencies and authorities within each country, each defending their own patch, instead of all working together to address the issue." (More)

May 28 2008 ~ "The Trust's function is 'to provide a wildlife sanctuary in perpetuity' for the Arapawa goats, sheep and pigs..."

Those interested will already know of the death of Betty Rowe of Arapawa Island (See warmwell's page on the Arapawa goats). The animals are eagerly sought by so-called "trophy hunters", and the DoC, for so long in dispute with Betty, has now kindly volunteered to check out boats near the sanctuary to stop poaching.
The Trust's function is 'to provide a wildlife sanctuary in perpetuity' for the Arapawa goats, sheep and pigs and possibly other endangered species. The sanctuary is an educational resource for school visits and will continue to be so as well as remaining accessible to the public and available for any scientific studies. The Trust currently has a very limited pool of funds, some of which will need to be spent on the translocation of the 'home goats' / immediate costs through the kidding season / drenching etc. (Cheques in any currency can be sent to the Arapawa Wildlife Sanctuary. The permanent address for those wanting to donate will be: Arapawa Wildlife Trust C/- "Aotea" Private 414 East Bay Picton 7250 New Zealand and will be very much appreciated by the family determined to protect Betty's legacy of work and dedication to these rare goats.)

May 28 2008 ~ "yet another example of a huge corporation steamrolling and bulldozing over a community..."

Zac Goldsmith wants a boycott of Sainsburys. The Independent says, "...Local campaigners have opposed Sainsbury's plans to open a branch on White Hart Lane, opposite the home of the songwriter Sir Tim Rice, who is also against the development. They claim the supermarket chain is ignoring local opinion and will crush local small shops that are already struggling to survive."

May 27 2008 ~ US Government Accounting Office report warns about what happened at Pirbright

The GAO report "GAO-08-821T High-Containment Biosafety Laboratories", should be read in full ( warmwell's html version here in new window) Its conclusions are particularly relevant to the hazards demonstrated by the Pirbright leak.
"...A recent release from the Pirbright facility - located in a farming community on the mainland of the United Kingdom - highlights the risks of a release from a laboratory that is in close proximity to the susceptible animals....
• ....human error can never be completely eliminated and since a lack of commitment to the proper maintenance of biocontainment facilities and their associated technology - as the Pirbright facility showed - can cause releases...
• ...The investigations determined that there had been a failure to properly maintain the site's infrastructure. In all, eight separate outbreaks occurred over a 2-month period.
• ... ...accidents, while rare, still occur because of human or technical errors. Given the non-zero risk of a release from any biocontainment facility, most of the experts we spoke with told us that an island location can provide additional protection. ...."
The report reveals that the DHS had not conducted any studies to determine the wisdom of moving FMD activities away from Plum Island, using instead an existing study that does not clearly support such a move. The GAO concludes that an island location can help prevent what happened in Surrey: the spread of FMD virus along terrestrial routes (by vehicles splashed with contaminated mud, for example) and also perhaps airborne transmission. The report noted grimly how "recent outbreaks in the United Kingdom have demonstrated its economic consequences."

May 27 2008 ~ Instead of tilting at the Opec windmill, we should be weaning ourselves off fossil fuels

We are not alone in wincing at Gordon Brown's pugnacious language, attempting to make OPEC the scapegoat for the oil crisis. Indeed, if propaganda were needed to nudge the population towards warlike feelings, would it not sound exactly like this?
"It is, as people will recognise, a scandal that 40% of the oil is controlled by Opec, that their decisions can restrict the supply of oil to the rest of the world, and that at a time when oil is desperately needed, and supply needs to expand, that Opec can withhold supply from the market." (Gordon Brown May 19 2008)
As Alan Duncan says in the Telegraph today,
"Opec has been more of a club than a cartel......How, indeed, can they be overcharging when Mr Brown can add 75pc at the petrol pump?.... The cause of high prices is not just Opec. ..... The last decade has lulled us into a false sense of security. Instead of tilting at the Opec windmill, we should be weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, increasing efficiency, addressing fuel poverty and encouraging the science that will find an alternative to oil. Shouting at Opec to turn on the taps is an expensive diversion that will merely delay our recognition of reality."
Alan Duncan MP is a former oil trader, and shadow secretary for business. Read in full The consequences of the end of cheap oil are not yet being openly talked about but they include the following (new window). What now looms is a question of sustaining the human population on the planet. Those elected to take responsibility need to consider the larger picture of what the prices are signalling - and the rest of us must cultivate our gardens.

May 26 2008 ~ One world, one disease - "integrated approach needed" to manage human and animal disease.

On Tuesday 24 June 2008 at the Royal Society of Medicine in Wimpole Street, a conference One world, one disease, organised by the RSM and The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons will take place. It will be chaired by Professor Sheila Crispin, and speakers include several other experts much respected by this website: Dr Colin Fink, Professor Bob Watson and Dr Caroline Lucas among them:
"...This conference aims to examine some of the effects of climate change on patterns of animal health and the impact on this for humans. The meeting will provide an understanding of the complexity of the global changes that we face, and will work towards the integrated approach needed to manage the serious problems that threaten animal and human health..."
Details and online registration at www.rsm.ac.uk (new window)

May 26 2008 ~ "people want it close to home, as fresh as possible, and produced sustainably"

As in Britain, there is in the US an ever-expanding groundswell of popular awareness about the advantages of buying local produce. In its article, The Rise of the 'Locavore', Business Week says the number of small farms in the US has increased 20% in the past six years. This seems to be reflected in the latest version of the US Farm Bill, which has passed with enough votes in both Houses to see off the veto threatened by President Bush. In previous years only about $100 million was destined to encourage small farmers to grow specialty crops, such as eggplants, strawberries, or salad greens but this Farm Bill has earmarked $2.3 billion for such enterprises. The overwhelming bulk of its $290 billion funding still goes to powerful agribusiness as subsidies to grow corn, soybeans, and cotton - but there is also money for research into organic foods, and to promote farmers' markets. "Small farmers will be able to get up to 75% of their organic certification costs reimbursed, and some of them can obtain crop insurance". As in the UK, such markets are on the increase throughout the US
"...testament to a dramatic shift in American tastes."
Consumers - "ordinary, middle-income folks who have become really engaged in food and really care about where their food comes from" - are increasingly wanting to buy from local farms rather than depend on food shipped in from abroad by the giant supermarkets. (Read Business Week article - and our thanks to Gary in Kansas for the link.)

May 25 2008 ~ Via Campesina is convinced that sustainable family farming and local food production can solve the current food and environmental crisis.

For thousands of years small-scale farmers have quietly conserved and renewed the biodiversity of plants and animals. The small farmers from across the globe who now make up the membership of the international organisation, Via Campesina want the vital importance of this role to be recognised. They are convinced that sustainable family farming and local food production can solve the current food and environmental crisis. Hundreds of people are going to hold a parallel initiative to the FAO Conference on food security and global warming in Rome (May 30 - June 5) with the aim of asking governments and the FAO to consider their responsibilities in today's food emergency.
"The organisations gathering in Rome are strongly committed to defend people's rights to eat and to feed themselves in a sustainable way. They reject industrial agriculture and genetic engineering and defend food sovereignty and sustainable family farming and food production as the solution to the current environmental, social and economic crisis..." See www.viacampesina.org
As they also pointed out this month, radical reassessments are urgently needed of the
"...policies that are wiping out biodiversity and rural communities across the planet... the false solutions - GMOs, agrofuels and forest monocultures, "carbon sinks", far from resolving the current problems, only make the situation worse by marginalizing small producers even more...."
The need for a radical reassessment of policies - indeed, an acceptance that there is a global crisis - is also behind the Early Day Motion we mention below. Please do get your MP to sign it.

May 25 2008 ~ Health and Safety Executive stands to gain financially from its unscientific insistence that white asbestos cement be disposed of

White asbestos cement - not the dangerous blue and brown forms of asbestos - poses no measurable risk to health. The risk of contracting mesothelioma from white asbestos cement has been described in a major study in 2000 by the Health and Safety Executive's own statisticians as "insignificant", while that of lung cancer was "zero". Yet, as Christopher Booker writes today in the Sunday Telegraph, since 2006, farmers have had to pay up to £400 a ton to have it removed to a "hazardous waste" site (95 per cent of which have been closed down under an EU directive) - and the total bill for the UK's farmers could be in the region of 6 billion pounds. The HSE refuse to listen to arguments about its harmlessness.
"... At a seminar last month, shocked NFU members heard a presentation from Dr John Hoskins, a leading asbestos toxicologist, showing how the risks of white asbestos cement had been exaggerated by the HSE to promote the contractors' interests. His case was supported by a paper from another world expert, Prof Fred Pooley, of Cardiff University. The HSE, which is closely associated with the removal industry (it even pays one big asbestos consultancy to run its official helpline), refused to attend. It would receive a delegation of NFU members - on condition that they did not bring their scientific advisers..."
(Mr Booker advises that farmers wanting advice on asbestos can contact Asbestos Watchdog by email: whiteasbestos@btconnect.com)

May 23 2008 ~ "many more farmers will abandon sheep production under the burden of yet more bureaucratic futility...."

Just at the very time we need to be securing home production comes the crazy Electronic Identification (EID) scheme in which every single sheep born after December 31, 2009 must be identified electronically and its every movement be recorded and reported.
In spite of the fact that the current system is more than capable of tracing sheep back to their original holding, the EU intends to impose this compulsory scheme in the UK in 2010. The Farmers Guardian today, under the headline Tagging scheme 'will add nothing' prints a letter from several high profile protestors who also ask that producers write to their MPs and MEPs
"whilst accepting the need for traceability, express their total opposition to EID in principle, despite the fact that the legislation has already been enacted. This is a fundamental test of the democratic credibility of EU institutions, whether the Commission will seek to impose a measure on a member state which is purposeless, universally opposed and will cripple our industry." Read in full
Anyone can write to their MP or MEP at www.writetothem.com

May 23 2008 ~ Malcolm Wicks put soaring oil price problems down to 'the perfect storm' that no one could have predicted....

We read on the odac-info.org newsletter:
"......The UK government is increasingly feeling the heat as fuel costs soar. Both road and airports policy were roundly attacked this week. In parliament the Lib Dems questioned the fact that the government's road policy is based on the astonishing assumption of $70/barrel oil in 2020, while a report by the Sustainable Development Commission questioned the assumptions of the airport expansion policy. Meanwhile road haulers are preparing a protest for next week. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday put the problem down to 'the perfect storm' that no one could have predicted. ..." Read in full
Warmwell's oil depletion page was certainly not the only Cassandra voice that began, early in 2004, to warn of Mr Wicks' perfect storm. The much jollier Transition initiative too is way ahead of the government in realising that the end of cheap oil means an end to the way of life dependent on a constant supply of cheap food, convenience gadgets and necessary commodities from abroad.
John Hemming's Early Day Motion calling for the Government urgently to review whether or not urgent policy adjustments are called for had received only 48* signatures from fellow MPs (*up to 50 this evening!) Please do write to yours.

May 23 2008 ~ Chris Skrebowski on PM programme says 'We're into a land without maps here'

Listen to yesterday's PM interview with Chris Skrebowski, editor of UK Petroleum Review
Skrebowski: ".....My own view is that this is not what we might call "pure peak oil." The peak we've reached at the moment is that we've in effect run out of the light, cheap and low-sulphur oil ... The next peak will be when the producer countries' exports start falling. ... then we will get another upward kick to the price when that starts to come in. Finally then we will get the peak oil where we simply cannot produce any more of any grade, any quality, anywhere. And that will give the final kick-up.
Q: When do you think kicks 2 and 3 will kick in?
Skrebowski: Probably around 2011. It could get pushed out to 2013 if everything goes perfectly. ... in practical planning terms almost tomorrow. ..... I really think we're into a land without maps here. We don't have any real historical precedent for this. We don't quite understand how to deal with it or how to cope with it."
Read more of the interview on the peak oil page

May 22/23 2008 ~ Energy watchdog, International Energy Agency, admits serious doubt on future of oil supplies. EDM Motion has only 48 signatures.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the International Energy Agency
"...is worried that aging oil fields and diminished investment mean that companies could struggle to surpass 100 million barrels a day over the next two decades."
For years the IEA has pooh-poohed the idea of peak oil and insisted that supplies will keep pace with rising demand (here, for example). The decision now to have a close look at supply "reflects an increasing fear within the agency and elsewhere that oil-producing regions aren't on track to meet future needs..." (See more in the Wall Street Journal)
The consequences of the end of cheap oil for the life we have grown used to are only just beginning to be seriously considered - and not considered at all by many. This time last year there were on Hansard no references to Peak Oil at all. At least there is now an All Party Group in the UK government. John Hemming's Early Day Motion needs the support of everyone's MP
" That this House notes that current movements in energy and food prices are in conformance with the predictions as to what would happen as oil production peaks; and calls for the Government urgently to review its predictions as to when peak oil occurs with a view to determining whether or not urgent policy adjustments are called for."
That there are only 48 signatures raises questions about the awareness of our elected representatives. Please do write to yours.

May 22 2008 ~ mass death of bees in southern Germany blamed on insecticide

Farming Today reports that Germany has banned the use of "one of Europe's most common pesticides. A mass death of bees in southern Germany is being blamed on an insecticide which is regularly applied to the seeds of crops like maize and oil-seed rape." The programme asked, "With Britain's bees in sharp decline could farmers be unwittingly contributing to their mass death?"
Thanks to the Smallholders Online newsletter (No. 248), we read that ".... "Gaucho", a broad-spectrum insecticide made by the Germany-based chemical giant Bayer, was banned in France in 1999 due to its toxicity to bees and other forms of life -- including humans -- but its replacement, "Regent", from another German giant, BASF, is just as dangerous say beekeepers and biologists." More
Bill Wiggin asked DEFRA's Minister yesterday what research has been commissioned into beekeeping and bee health in the past few years - and what research is to be commissioned in each of the next five years. Jonathan Shaw's answer seems oddly unconcerned in view of Albert Einstein's now much quoted remark that "if bees were to disappear, man would only have a few years to live"

May 22 ~ vaccination against FMD "which allows a better control of the disease" OIE Alert

The latest Foot and Mouth outbreak is in Equador. There is no question of mass slaughter nor even the automatic slaughter of the young bulls that are sick. "Measures applied: Quarantine, Movement control inside the country, Zoning. Vaccination in response to the outbreak (s) , Disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s), No treatment of affected animals" The affected farm has had "Quarantine .. applied on the farm and movement restrictions are implemented in the area. This event coincides with the beginning of the first phase of vaccination against FMD in 2008, which allows a better control of the disease."

May 22 ~ The threat of GM terminator seeds - back again

The practice of seed-saving and seed sharing is at the very heart of small-scale farming and central to the livelihoods of 1.4 billion people in the developing world. But its future - and the food security of those who rely on it - is now under serious threat. Sol Oyuela, the Environmental officer of Progressio, an international development charity which chairs the 'UK Working Group on Terminator Technology', writes in today's Guardian about the threat to the world's poorest farmers from "terminator" technology - genetic engineering that results in plants producing sterile seeds. The highly controversial technology is currently controlled by a temporary UN ban - but this is
"... now under threat from a powerful alliance of biotech companies and countries with vested interests.... We fear the ban will once again come under pressure at this week's UN summit on the convention on biological diversity in Bonn. ...the EU and, by implication, British taxpayers are contributing to the development of the technology through a £3.4m EU research project "
Read Progressio's report "Against the Grain"

May 22 2008 ~ The relentless rise of the seed multinationals has already locked millions of farmers into buying commercialised seed

Extract from Progressio's report "Against the Grain"
"Seed industry concentration and market forces are undermining small-scale farming in developing nations. The facts are shocking:
• As market demand for commercial crops rises, small producers are forced to abandon local and indigenous varieties.
• Seeds which people once saved now have to be sourced from seed companies while foodstuffs farmers once grew on their land now have to be bought from shops.
• The top 10 seed companies control 55% of the total commercial seed market.
The danger is that Terminator is the logical next step in seed companies' bid to privatise plant life and would leave farmers with no choice at all...."
Read "Against the Grain"

May 22 2008 ~ "What is land for, what skills are necessary and where does the public interest lie?"

Even now that oil has surged past $135 a barrel, the consequences of the oil price surge are not waking us from the complacent dream of plenty. (See The FT quotes Jeffrey Currie of Goldman Sachs "This industry is experiencing severe long-term supply constraints, and the focus on speculators is missing the big picture.." As the FT says, concern is now "fast moving into the mainstream"
This is why we have been warning since 2004 on warmwell that to talk of a post-agricultural era is frankly suicidal for the UK.
Between 1997 and 2004 (can this really have been the last year of official figures?) 80,000 farmers and farm workers left agriculture. How many in the most recent four years? The recent parliamentary debate (see below) on supermarkets suggests that there are woefully few MPs who see the dangers of relying on supplies from abroad. Most continue to regard supermarkets as infinite food providers, and the provenance and supply of foodstuffs even now seems not to be any concern of the government. We are indeed sleepwalking into a crisis. In the words of Professor Tim Lang's recent City University London lecture
"What is land for, what skills are necessary and where does the public interest lie?"
Even the EU is beginning to notice that waiting until 2013 to make changes will not do. We live and work in a finite global ecosystem, with exhaustible resources and capacities. How far must home food production decline before government and companies start seeing it as a real issue? Tim Lang says, "Why are we buying food from other people which should be feeding developing countries?"

May 22 2008 ~ " traditional farming practices....considered of high nature value"

A series of studies jointly realised by the WWF and the Dutch government were presented to the European Commission last Thursday. The WWF's Yanka Kazakova of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme said that small farmers "..make a significant contribution to securing environmental benefits and services, from biodiversity to drinking water and flood management. The fact that high nature value farmland payments exist at all in these rural development programmes is noteworthy," Ms Kazakova said. "Now they just need to be targeted more effectively." Focusing on the "economic viability" of farms effectively disqualifies subsistence and semi-subsistence farms. EU agricultural support is supposed to help precisely this sort of farming, but instead is mostly directed at large landowners and agribusiness. ( See article at Euobserver.com)

May 22 2008 ~ The CAP is not scheduled for a root and branch reform until 2013 - but...

The Independent gives details of EU proposals put forward yesterday by the Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel. It seems at last to be being accepted that there is an urgent need to accelerate food production, support "traditional" farms and encourage "high-quality" foods.
"...money would be shifted to rural development programmes, including attempts to encourage biodiversity and protect rivers and streams from pollution. Some could also go to new direct subsidies to smaller, traditional farms, producing high-quality foods. Set-aside payments would be abolished and dairy quotas eased and then abolished by 2015. If approved by the 27 EU governments, the plans would sharply cut the huge payments received by some high-profile landowners in Britain, including the Queen, the Duke of Westminster and the Duke of Marlborough. The Queen is believed to earn £500,000 a year from the CAP. Under yesterday's proposals, she would lose £80,000. It remains to be seen whether the British Government will accept the idea of "capping" ...."
Read in full

May 22 2008 ~ Many are watching Brazil's reaction to the live export suspension and are backing a permanent ban on long distance transport of animals for slaughter.

As the "Handle with Care" campaign puts it, ".. there is no humane way to transport live farm animals long distances. And the live trade is totally unnecessary when chilled and frozen meat has been transported around the world for over 125 years." At present, 100,000 cattle a year endure a three-week land and sea journey from Brazil to Lebanon, during which many animals die from heat stroke, trauma and respiratory disease. . The Public Prosecutor of the Pará State in Brazil, Benedito Wilson Sá, is fighting to ban live animal exports from one of Brazil's busiest ports, Belém. Live exports are currently suspended. It is the first time ever that animal welfare has been a factor when halting live exports from a port. The Public Prosecutor also argued that live exports damage the environment, discourage tourism and are ruining the state's slaughterhouse industry. Although one appeal from the export industry has already been defeated, the temporary live export suspension won by Mr Wilson Sá still faces legal challenges. The London registered charity, World Society for the Protection of Animals, believing that the UK and other EU countries should be leaders in improving animal welfare, asks for names to attach to a letter to the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou.

May 19 2008 ~ "...nations like mine are aggressively developing alternatives to oil...."

So said George Bush at the end of his Middle East tour. See The National (Abu Dhabi ) "..... While oil's climb to more than US$127 (Dh466) per barrel last week loomed over Mr Bush's speech, Mr Mubarak devoted his words to worries about rising global prices for food. Egypt has experienced strikes and outbreaks of violence over soaring food costs in recent weeks, a problem that Mr Mubarak said "affects poor countries the most". He urged an "urgent dialogue" between developed and developing countries to try to alleviate the price increases of both the crucial commodities before they turned into a "chronic crisis". Like oil, rice and wheat prices have climbed to record or near record levels in recent weeks and major exporters such as India have moved to limit their shipments, an especially unnerving development for the Middle East..." Read in full - and see also the Scotsman. "......about a quarter of the American corn crop was used for biofuels last year, driving up the price of corn and, hence, also the price of food for millions of families..." See also warmwell's peak oil page on recent news and analysis.

May 18 2008 ~ "Defra itself admits on its website that the blood test is cruder and less "specific" than the skin test..."

Booker's Notebook in the Sunday Telegraph eloquently echoes our latest entries below:
"...Eleven times a gunshot signalled the killing of a cow from the Yewdalls' 450-strong pedigree Guernsey herd. Sixty nine more, 30 still in calf, were loaded onto trucks to be killed at a local abattoir. For father and son, and for their herdsman who refused to be present, it was the blackest day of their farming lives.
...Mr Justice Mitting....resting his judgment solely on the law...ruled that, because the blood test had been approved by the EU, it was therefore lawful for Defra to rely on it. Even though Brussels had regarded gamma interferon as only an ancillary test, not to be relied on for a definitive diagnosis... ...." Read in full
The bovine TB epidemic, costs taxpayers £90 million a year and within six years, we read, the total bill could reach £2 billion. The path chosen by the government, like the 'kill to cure' of FMD 2001, is mismanagement on such a massively tragic scale that it can hardly be comprehended by those not involved.
See also today Tim Worstall and the ever excellent EU referendum Blog

May 18 2008 ~ What an appalling waste.

From the bovine TB blog which really must be read in full to comprehend the nature of the tragedy being enacted by officialdom in the name of 'disease control'.
".......The postmortem results on Mr. Yewdall's cattle are now to hand. After 6 months in isolation, just 2 cattle had Visible Lesions and a further 3 were found to have the very beginnings of small closed granulomas. Over 80 cattle were slaughtered in this carnage - as 'reactors' to the secondary, ancillary gamma interferon blood test. They had survived under an injunction for the best part of eight months in which the opportunity was there to produce full blown disease and prove Defra's point.
What a splendid result for our beloved Defra.
What a total waste of £100,000 for the UK taxpayer.
What a devastating and irreplaceable waste for the Yewdall family...."
http://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2008/05/carnage.html Do read this in full. It is important that people know how their money is being spent at a time when DEFRA's cuts are biting into the country's ability to protect itself, *see below.

May 17 2008 ~ "The fact that Defra insisted in doing this without a re-test is just awful. All those poor healthy cows have been put down without reason."

Kill first. Ask later. Many were shocked at the killing of an entire herd of uninfected cows in Somerset - as we reported on May 1 - when in spite of wholly negative results from the TB skin test, DEFRA ordered that all the animals in a Pewsey herd should be destroyed. And now, the story below about the High Court TB case that we first reported in January has the miserable sequel that 75 out of the 80 pedigree Guernsey cows, slaughtered under the anguished gaze of the Devon farmers, Tony Yewdall and his wife, were shown to be free of bovine TB on laboratory testing.
The Western Morning News reports this latest case with unease in spite of the "balance" they show in quoting a DEFRA official's words about "sound disease control reasons". As we have been saying for seven years, killing hordes of healthy animals pour encourager les autres does rather defeat the object of the exercise - unless, of course, there is a different object in view. The motives of those ordering such wholesale, insensitive and unscientific destruction must inevitably make us wonder. Certainly, no kindly consideration seems ever to be given to the farmers, their families, their futures. Nor, apparently, is there the faintest conception of the idea that there should be a contract of decency between animal and consumer and that the waste of a healthy farm animal is as sinful as anything referred to by David Attenborough below.

May 14 2008 ~ "Supermarkets are not stupid. They stay close to the Government..."

There was a debate in Parliament yesterday on supermarkets. Neither the word "crisis" nor the word "imports" was mentioned. Having said he was there "neither to bury nor unduly praise supermarkets" the Conservative, Mr. Mark Field, (Cities of London and Westminster) made enthusiastic references to
".. the well-stocked shelves of a supermarket represented the most visible signal of the success of free markets, choice and capitalism..."
as if the well-stocked shelves would be there for ever - whatever inconvenient global crises suggest otherwise. At least Roger Williams was able to ask,
"...have not supermarkets become the victims of their own bad practices? In using uncompetitive processes to procure their food, they have driven down the amount of food being produced and now there is a shortage..."
Mr Field, with no rural constituents and no apparent awareness of shortages, dismissed the " folk" who "whimsically reminisce" about the days when one separately visited the local butcher, fishmonger, baker and greengrocer," and deplored the perpetuation of "the myth that small and local equal 'good'. ..."
Sarah Teather, however, pointed out: "... in truth, if local shops go, there is not much chance of sourcing produce locally and following a regime of fewer food miles." while Stroud's MP, David Drew hoped for a debate on the Sustainable Communities Act of 2007
Dr John Pugh remarked, "Supermarkets are not stupid. They stay close to the Government - we need not talk about Lord Sainsbury, but simply look at the role of the head of Tesco in various taskforces set up by the Prime Minister..." Read the debate

May 13 2008 ~ " A much needed antidote to the world as seen from Westminster ..."

We agree with the emailer who sent this cheering press release about the coming Launch Event in June that will be a foretaste of the Stroud "Communiversity", designed for those who are considering joining 6 day event in August which will give those interested in local action on housing, food, enterprise and sustainable environments an opportunity to engage first hand with some of Stroud's ground-breaking projects. There will be opportunities for discussion as well as a keynote talk by Professor Hugh Barton, the World Health Organisation's Healthy Cities Champion. His talk is entitled "Creating Healthy, Sustainable Towns and Neighbourhoods", showing examples of disasters and marvellous successes and "challenging Stroud to think holistically". See also the Transitions initiative pages

May 13 2008 ~ "people and places which are the lifeblood of village life"

2,500 post offices are to close across the country. In France too, small post offices are closing down to the great dismay of those without easy transport. The EU referendum Blog points out today that 3,000 UK post offices might face closure in addition to those affected by the UK government's decision to remove from post offices their ability to provide driving licences, television licences and benefits payments. £168m was lost in post office revenue. Now, pension and benefit payments - the "Post Office Card Account 2 (Poca2)" contract - has been put up for tender because of the EU's procurement directives (and this needs to be read in full) .
David Cameron, visiting the Eden Project near St Austell last night, told the Western Morning News that he was determined to "use the levers of power" to acknowledge the "social value" of the people and places which are the lifeblood of village life - such as post offices, libraries, police stations, schools and GP surgeries. He blamed Labour's obsession with putting "bureaucratic neatness" ahead of social value, which created a country run by a system of "management consultant and Powerpoint presentation". See WMN.

May 13 2008 ~ The scramble for biofuels is driving Colombian peasant farmers off their land

War on Want's new report, Fuelling Fear: The human cost of biofuels in Colombia (pdf), reveals that in Nariño's western mountain range in south-west Colombia as much as 70 per cent of the population has been forced off their land because of the surge in demand for biofuels. See Press release According to War on Want, the UK, despite being one of the largest consumers of Colombia's palm oil products, remains unaware of the devastating impact of cultivation of this crop on the lives of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. The Guardian reported on this issue yesterday.
The special In Depth pages on the Financial Times provide a comprehensive overview of the present global food and energy crisis

May 12 ~ "Farmers admit they are getting great prices for wheat, but that's being offset by record fertiliser and fuel prices."

A report by the US National Agriculture Statistics Service, projected "record global wheat production of 656 million tons, up 8 percent from last year. ...higher production was expected for most of the world's major exporting countries - including Australia, Canada, Russia and Ukraine, among others." (Source)
In Australia however, according to www.abc.net.au today: "Hopes of harvesting a bumper wheat crop this year are fading quickly, with more areas around the country sinking back into drought. In New South Wales, almost half the state has been officially drought declared, and the situation is not much better in Victoria and Queensland..."
On the US website www.hutchnews.com, and in spite of its optimistic headline, "Bountiful harvest looming for nation's wheat farmers", we read that, "U.S. and global demand for wheat for human food use is increasing, and some countries will want to rebuild wheat reserves that have been reduced to critical levels. Growers have been concerned about the high input costs for fertilizer, seed, energy and other costs....despite the bigger anticipated wheat crops across the country, the nation's total wheat supplies are expected be up only 4 percent because of historically low carryover grain stocks. "

May 12 2008 ~ David Attenborough on waste - Washington Post

"The main thing is to avoid waste, to recognize that waste is actually sinful, and it is a gross damage to the world's environment from all kinds of points of view. Wasting energy is an appalling thing to do, and the way that we have squandered energy -- and particularly fossil energy -- not knowing what we were doing, is a catastrophe. ....since I've been making programs, there are three times as many people living on this planet than before." Washington Post

May 12 2008 ~ Lack of foreign pickers could result in the waste of 50,000 tonnes of UK soft fruits

Foreign workers used to be recruited as pickers for cultivated fruit - but as the Independent points out today, there is much criticism of the SAWS regulations, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, which has now reduced the number of workers permitted from 25,000 to 16,250. SAWS used to allow workers from non-EU countries to do the low-skilled picking work in Britain - but this year the work is restricted to EU citizens - which in effect means Romania and Bulgaria. However, because of the fall in the value of the pound, they can earn only £5.52 an hour if they travel to the UK. Not unnaturally they would prefer to stay at home and earn £7 an hour. Supermarkets who cannot get UK fruit (left rotting where it has grown) will import foreign fruit.
One wonders if British workers will be prepared to do this work at £5.52 an hour. Back in December 2007 the Independent drew the comparison between a Ms Gertuida Baartman, a widowed mother in South Africa who is paid 38p an hour to collect apples, pears and peaches in the Western Cape, with the financial situation of Terry Leahy, appointed chief executive of Tesco in 1997. His salary rose from £3.9m to £4.6m last year and he was set to to receive £11.5m in shares. Nice work..
UPDATE The Independent actually says the supermarkets will import from the Netherlands but one of our Dutch correspondents points out that
"we have exactly the same problem with a shortage of labour. Secondly, why are British school kids and students not doing this work, with an hourly rate of over 5 pounds they can earn over 200 quid a week! Is there not such a thing as a holiday job in the UK? In Holland and also in Belgium where I have lived for a while, many school kids work for a few weeks in the long summer holiday. Maybe we can start a discussion". .
Are there any comments? Contact.

May 12 2008 ~ A short film about the big picture

Is "The Story of Stuff just preaching to the converted? No, says, www.truthout.org
" The Story of Stuff is something you can show to anyone. It's persuasive but not a sermon. It's sophisticated but not esoteric. Its tone is light but its content is serious. It's narrated by the irrepressible Annie Leonard....she spent 10 years traveling the world to explore how stuff is made and discarded... There aren't many people who race from international airports to visit trash dumps. Annie does. In travels to three dozen countries, she has visited garbage dumps, infiltrated toxic factories, worked with ragpickers and received death threats for her investigative work. Her understanding of the externalized violence of the corporate consumer economy comes from direct observation and experience.
The Story of Stuff is a short film about the big picture..."
Many thanks to Gary for this link. The film is great fun - and of great seriousness.

May 11/12 2008 ~ Mangroves would have protected villagers in Burma

Mangroves are salt-tolerant evergreens that grow along coastlines, rivers and deltas The plants' root systems have been shown to dissipate wave energy but they have been systematically removed. But, as Geoffrey Lean, echoing the BBC last week, points out in the Independent on Sunday, 83% per cent of the mangroves of the Irrawaddy delta, the area worst hit by the cyclone, have been cleared since 1924, first to grow rice, and more recently by people desperate for fuel.
"...vital mangrove forests had been cut down, destroying the land's protection against the sea. Far more people were killed by a 12ft wave which stormed ashore during the violent storm than by its 120mph winds ..."
The environmental degradation, including the cutting of the mangrove swamps and teak forests, took place began when the British ruled colonial Burma and made the country one of the world’s largest rice exporters.
Oxfam is warning (Monday) that 1.5million Burmese face catastrophe (See FT) "The ponds are full of dead bodies, the wells have saline water, and even things like a bucket are in scarce supply." Since some aid organizations trying to help the relief operation are reporting fraud, donations should be given directly to a trusted organization, not to secondary sites or emails. Stephen Fry's television appeal can be seen here on YouTube. Donations can be made here to the umbrella charity, the trusted Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC.org.uk), named in his appeal.

May 11 ~ "Grocery bills could be a proverbial canary in the coal mine, warning of dangers the rest of us can't detect"

An article by Rod Dreher, the Dallas Morning News editorial columnist, appeared last Sunday. Extract: "...If you believe the rise of China and India is a temporary phenomenon - and that we will return to normal once the oil supply responds, as it always has, to meet unprecedented global demand - you've got no worries. But what if those emerging Asian powers are here to stay, and world oil demand will outstrip production, as most experts predict? In that case, rising grocery prices likely signal a more fundamental crisis in a modern civilization built on inexpensive, readily available oil. ...." The article also quotes Barton Briggs (As we did below on February 10 ) who, in his new book, "Wealth, War & Wisdom " says that the rich are especially vulnerable "because they cherish the illusion that when things start to go bad, they will have time to extricate themselves and their wealth. It never works that way. Events move much faster than anyone expects."

May 11 2008 ~" a palpable sense of urgency in their voices.."

At the Ecocity World Summit conference in San Francisco on the subject of sustainable cities, a group of "designers, builders, planners, organizers, artists and mayors (including Gavin Newsom) from around the world "came to share their ideas and experiences. The article in the San Fransisco Chronicle yesterday reported, "there was a palpable sense of urgency in their voices" The conference's principal organizer, Richard Register, director of the Oakland nonprofit Ecocity Builders said,
"Now we are nearing a threshold. Will we cross into a whole other realm, a whole other way of building (cities) - for people instead of for the requirements of machines (cars)? ... Are we going to redesign and start shaping cities on the human measure and for ecological health, before relatively inexpensive energy goes away forever?"
Read article and see also warmwell's page on the Transition initiatives in the UK

May 11 2008 ~ One-fifth of the world's cropland is degraded

Gratefully received from Australia is this link to an article by Seth Borenstein from the Associated Press which points out that the state of the soil has been overlooked by many when discussing the global food crisis. Beyond the economics lie droughts and floods, plant diseases and pests, and all too often, poor soil:
".... farmers are forced to use practices that rob nutrients from the soil, not put it back...The current crisis could have been avoided "if we, the world, had promoted fertilizer in Africa and we have known for ages it works," said Pedro Sanchez, Columbia University tropical agricultural director.
In that way, the problem with soil is a prime example of a larger failing of agriculture science, said Sanchez, who has won both the World Food Prize and a MacArthur genius grant. Scientists have the knowledge to feed the world right now, but that is not happening .."
Finding money for soil health is difficult ...but the article gives the heartening example of Malawi whose new president invested 8 percent of Malawi's national budget in a subsidy program which resulted in each farmer receiving two bags of fertilizer and 4½ pounds of seeds at less than half the cost. In two years, says the article, Malawi has changed from a food aid recipient to a food aid donor and is self-sufficient.

May 9 2008 ~ "resource nationalism" can endanger world food security.

The Telegraph today:
"....As food and fuel riots spread across the world, a string of governments have resorted to steps that menace the free flow of food and key commodities. Argentina has limited beef exports, while Egypt and India have stopped shipments of rice. ...
Kazakhstan has prohibited wheat exports. Russia has slapped a 40pc export duty on shipments, and Pakistan a 35pc duty. China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philipines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam have all imposed export controls or forms of rationing to ease the crisis." (Nepal too has banned grain exports in the face of rising food costs and shortages at home)
"UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that this lurch towards national controls is becoming a threat to the open global system we all take for granted.... A new report by UBS says the scramble for scarce raw materials is turning ever more political, with ominous implications for ill-endowed societies that rely on imports. ... Nationalist policies are making the crisis worse.... ..."
US regulators deny that speculators have been a major force behind the latest surge in oil prices. The FAO says the cost of food for poor countries that rely heavly on food imports has raised food prices by 74% and, as we learned from the Financial Times on May 7th, "higher shipping rates are an extra burden for food importing countries, which are struggling to pay record prices for agricultural commodities."

May 9 2008 ~"overall there is little sign that policy-makers have grasped the enormity of what has happened."

As Magnus Linklater pointed out in the Times very recently,
"...just at a time when we should be considering how best to increase our production of grain, we in Britain are switching off one main source of it. ...
It is clear that the Government has yet to react to the dimensions of the looming world food crisis. It needs to begin a debate with the EU on the whole direction of Europe's agricultural strategy and rethink it from scratch, devising a strategy for sustainable production, then begin to educate the public about the realities ahead. It will mean a change in culture that is a million miles from the Tesco-driven consumerism we have grown lazily used to over the past 20 years. " Read in full
On the question of government complacency and inaction, warmwell readers are strongly urged to ask their MPs to support John Hemming MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas (APPGOPO) , who has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM 1453) urgently calling on the government to review its prediction as to when peak oil will occur, in light of rising energy and food prices. You can, of course, find out who your MP is and email them through www.writetothem.com (new window) And see also the peak oil pages, now running on warmwell since early 2004. Example letter to MP and text of the Early Day Motion.

May 9 2008 ~ Professor Tim Lang "we've got to have a sustainable food system"

This morning's Today Programme (Listen Again), examined Gordon Ramsay's deliberately provocative assertion that chefs should be fined for using food that's out of season, Professor Lang from the City University's Centre for Food Policy felt that in essence he was right:
".... We have got to push back towards seasonality...production is dropping just at the time when we have got to make the food system work on a more ecological basis....the global food system is going to have to shift..the fuel issue is clearly at the top of it. We're already seeing it in the Big Four commodities; wheat, maize, rice, soya....."
Prof. Lang and John Humphrys both agreed that "The days of 26,000 items on the supermarket shelves - those days are going to have to come to an end." Bob Stott, former Chairman of Morrisons, seemed both complacent and contemptuous - revealing a worrying set of assumptions that must be questioned. The challenge of securing the world's food supply was the subject of Professor Lang's City University London lecture 'Food Security: are we sleepwalking into a crisis?' on 4 March 2008. It examined the clash between our cheap food culture and sustainability. At stake are fundamental questions for our national policy: what is land for, what skills are necessary and where does the public interest lie? The Powerpoint slides provide a dramatic summary. (More on Tim Lang)

May 8/9 2008 ~ Pirbright was in "desperate need of investment" from DEFRA in 2006 - but the leak not our responsibility says the government

The10 Downing St site was sent a petition that many readers will have signed, asking for compensation for the misery and financial losses through movement restrictions caused by "the lapse in Bio-Security at the Government's own laboratory at Pirbright in August 2007." The reply today Extract:
We implemented a detailed and systematic disease surveillance plan to provide robust evidence to the EU that the disease outbreak had been effectively controlled....
. The outbreak... not caused by the Government's role as a regulator..... primary responsibility for managing risks must lie with any facility where work on dangerous pathogens is carried out."
But how could Pirbright possibly manage risks effectively when their pleas for funding were ignored?

May 8/9 2008 ~ The government was alerted to the desperate lack of funding long before the virus leak.

The warnings from the IAH (memorandum at the end of the Science and Technology Committee's 4th report volume 2) make it quite clear that DEFRA was warned. For example:
"....The Visiting Group to the IAH in June 2006 noted that the equipment in these laboratories was in desperate need of investment, but this is not possible without additional funding from the Department."
Pirbright's pleas were ignored. This year, the Department is managing to find a total of £418 million to pay the EU fine for the RPA delays In 2006 it could not find the resources to keep its own dangerous house in order when it mattered - and now washes its hands of the consequences.

May 8 2008 ~ "completely unacceptable that we are going through this again"

The RPA page, begun in January 2006, was updated again today. The North- East chairman of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), is still waiting for her Single Farm Payment - along with about 9,000 others in England who are owed a total of £190 million for last year. "I find it completely unacceptable that we are going through this again. It is causing huge problems, coming on the back of an appalling spring, rising prices and the aftermath of draconian foot and mouth restrictions..."

May 8 2008 ~"behind the façade of pleasantries about the industry the Government has no policy towards domestic food production at all" James Paice

Global food shortages have at long last focused attention on the UK's declining ability to feed itself. The Western Morning News reports that James Paice wants the Government to ditch its current policy which states that domestic production is "not a necessary condition for food security..."
An NFU spokesman too makes a plea for
"a clear acknowledgment of the value of stepping up food production, backed by some serious investment in research and development and accompanied by a genuine attack on the red tape which is holding us back..."
The Lib Dem, Roger Williams, said on May 1 "...we are going into world markets, pushing up the prices and making food less available for poor countries." Mr Paice's letter to Gordon Brown echoes this, saying our reduced agricultural output is "putting more strain on world markets and makes us compete with developing countries for that food".

May 8 2008 ~ Depending on cheap food from abroad is no longer a safe bet.

In DEFRA's own inimitable version of English, a spokesman told the WMN that food security depended on
"effective risk management and contingency planning, security energy supplies, access to food from a variety of sources and a strong food chain and infrastructure"
Food security actually means having enough safe food for people to eat - and depending on cheap food from abroad is no longer a safe bet. In less fortunate parts of the world, millions are finding themselves unable to pay for food because of the consequences of rising oil prices and the "silent mass murder", as the UN's Jean Ziegler put it in a recent interview, of the ever increasing clout of financial speculators in large index and hedge funds. We read in today's Financial Times that costs of importing foodstuffs are rocketing - and of course many exporting countries are now having to decide whether they can really go on exporting if this leaves their own people high and dry. (see below)

May 7 2008 ~ The commercialisation of Pirbright's "lateral flow" device "to support clinical diagnosis."

While of course any kind of diagnostic test must be commended if it prevents the unnecessary slaughter of uninfected animals, it is hard not to feel continuing astonishment that the UK feels it must reinvent the wheel when better wheels are used elsewhere.
The US-developed rapid on-site RT-PCR kits are successfully used in former Soviet Bloc countries. These should have been our first line of defence in 2007, along with buffer vaccination. Lateral flow devices were used in Surrey - but unnecessary slaughter still took place. On Hunts Hill farm, for example, 362 mixed species of free-range animals were slaughtered "as a precaution" and the grief of the farmer and his wife when they discovered that the suspect pig, and all the other animals, had been free of disease was very painful to witness. (see chronicle of the 2007 outbreak)
The news of the commercialisation of Pirbright's lateral flow device is news today.
" ....An extract of a small sample of tissue taken from an animal suspected of having FMD is spotted onto the bottom of the device. This then flows up the device. If FMDV is present in the sample, a line forms within 10 minutes..."
But the test being used in former Soviet Bloc countries by the US trained teams can be used before any clinical signs are visible at all and before virus can be identified by any other means. Only a swab need be taken - not "tissue". The cartridges are light and safely disposed of after use. As one emailer comments, "It is a bit like re manufacturing Austin 7 motorcars; Charming , but the world has moved on and they have failed to notice."

May 7 2008 ~ Scrapie research continues....

SEAC's eventual reassurance that scrapie does not mask BSE has not - as we note in this answer to a Parliamentary Question asked on April 30 - prevented vast sums continuing to be spent on "research projects" into scrapie. A glance at Jonathan Shaw's answer gives a flavour of the sort of activity this money recently funded - for example :
".....The last three projects have looked at whether embryos, collected from a scrapie infected ewe, give rise to infected lambs when transplanted into scrapie free ewes. The most recent of these projects, SE1834, found that transplanted embryos do not appear to become infected...."
The utter insanity of this needs to be stated. No money available to compensate the swillfeeders - yet literally millions given to "researchers" who transplant the unborn lambs of deliberately infected laboratory sheep into other equally unfortunate laboratory ewes - all because of a theoretical threat, found in December 2006 to be unfounded.
See also warmwell's scrapie pages which, taken together, describe a situation that would be difficult to believe had it not been documented.

May 7 2008 ~ No compensation for swill feeders - but real dangers from present disposal of waste

Ann Winterton asked on May 1 2008 whether the Government would provide compensation to swill-feeders in connection with foot and mouth disease. (Hansard) "No" said Jonathan Shaw. He added
" there is no un-remedied injustice which requires reconsideration of the question."
The producers had spent many thousands of pounds setting themselves up with new belt and braces safety equipment only to find their businesses peremptorily closed by the Government at the start of foot and mouth disease outbreak. (More) The pigswill at Bobby Waugh's farm - the alleged cause of foot and mouth that justified the complete ban - was never even tested for virus. Lord Rooker asserted in February (Lords Hansard) that it was SEAC's advice as much as FMD that led to the ban - but this cannot even be called wisdom after the event. Are DEFRA officials and Ministers even aware that, as the Observer reported on Sunday, " The European Union is preparing plans to allow pig remains to be used to feed poultry. The practice - banned in Europe after the BSE crisis 10 years ago - would save farmers millions of pounds as prices of cereal feed for chickens soar, say officials in Brussels...."

May 7 2008 ~ Uncooked waste meat may contain animal pathogens, including BSE, the foot-and-mouth disease virus, African swine fever virus and classical swine fever virus.

So, to prevent outbreaks of these diseases in farm animals, the disposal of meat from catering waste is controlled under the Animal By-Products Regulations. There are 62 uncompensated former swill feeders - still fighting the injustice of the 2001 ban, but extremely concerned at the dangers of present composting practices. A farmer helping them rightly points out that there is evidence that shows the present composting of waste food, including waste meat, can be done in ways that contravene this legislation. The farmer on the cattle farm in the photo in which we see a cow grazing next to waste, is permitted to use the same telescopic handler to shovel the waste meat that is then used to feed the cattle.
The swill feeders' practices were never in fact proved to be in any way dangerous. They effectively recycled organic waste - 5.25 million tonnes of which is now sent to landfill in the UK each year . After seven years of protest, they are still to receive no compensation for the sudden and unwarranted loss of livelihoods that posed no threat of disease spread. "Animal Health", however, may indeed be condoning practices that really do allow the spread of viruses and bacteria. See email (extract) from Robert Persey - and more pages from the warmwell archives on the goverment's handling of the swill feeders.
UPDATE How timely is the Independent article about food waste.

May 7 2008 ~ "The theme of the symposium is tracking the emergence and global spread of FMD."

IAH celebrates its 50th anniversary this week as the World Reference Laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease. A one-day symposium, to be held at the Royal Society on Friday 9th May, will feature speakers from Belgium, Germany, Italy, South Africa, and Spain in addition to the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Oxford, and IAH. "..The significance of the disease has been exacerbated by the globalisation of trade, the rapid growth and intensification of livestock keeping (especially in countries where FMD is chronic), and the threat of bioterrorist attacks." The first scientific talk will be given by Nick Knowles of IAH, who compares the gene sequences of new isolates of the virus with his ever-expanding database of FMD sequences from around the globe. Read news release.

May 7 2008 ~ It is "whistling in the wind" to blame OPEC for the huge rise in oil prices

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes in the Telegraph that a massive transfer of wealth from the Atlantic region to the rising commodity powers is taking place. Goldman Sachs think prices could reach 200 dollars. Barclays Capital bank say that OPEC no longer has the capacity to crank up production even if it wanted to do so. More on the oil page.

May 6 2008 ~ "We need a change in the approach to rural development. ....a sense of ownership in initiatives to improve production. ."

Letter in today's Guardian from Chris Wardle who has been a team leader of evaluations of rural community development projects in Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda during the past 35 years:
"...... the large-scale rural development projects, funded by the EU and others, did not consult local peasant farmers. I know, because I was involved in one of these projects. They were imposed from the top down. ...
The key is a concerted investment of three to five years that directly involves the peasant farmers. They identify their food production problems and suggest possible solutions. As a result they have a sense of ownership in initiatives to improve production. .. ."
Read letter in full. A "sense of ownership". This is exactly and absolutely right - and is what gives those involved in initiatives of all kinds the power to succeed. Until top-down government and NGOs, however well-meaning, finally realise this, there will be yet more hot air and tragically wasted resources.

May 6 2008 ~ - "How organic agriculture and localised food (and energy) systems can feed the world and free us from fossil fuels.."

Guy Watson is chairman of Riverford Organics, the organic vegetable box delivery service. Mr Watson travelled to Kenya and Uganda to look at how organic farming methods
"... work in the places where it really matters to see for himself. He found that farmers, particularly in Uganda who had adopted organic and local supply methods weren't just as productive, or a little more productive, but twenty times more productive that the market- based farm next door. 'I wish that some of the people that say it can't solve the world's problems could see that', he said."
The ISIS report: Food Futures Now was launched in the Jubilee Room in the House of Commons last week and there was barely standing room
Of the ISIS report, Sir Julian Rose, a leading exponent of organic farming and Chair of the Association of Rural Businesses, says: "Most compelling! A succinct and pithy appraisal of the current state of the planet - and just the right resolutions." (More)

May 6 2008 ~ "It is saddening that the very government which is supposed to support him killed him."

This was the comment of the nephew of one of the men killed by troops during food price protests in Mogadishu. The Independent today reminds us that UN food security unit warned last week that half of Somalia's seven million population faces famine.
".. It blamed an enduring drought as well as soaring food prices. Food protests have also erupted in three other African countries, including Senegal..."
Wikipedia ( entry for the International Fund for Agricultural Development) "Seventy-five per cent of the world's poor live in rural areas in developing countries, yet only 4% of official development assistance goes to agriculture.... IFAD's belief is that rural poor people must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, and they need to strengthen their bargaining power in the marketplace."

May 6 2008 ~ assets of the FAO should be transferred to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development

Abdoulaye Wade, the president of Somalia, has suggested the assets of the FAO be transferred to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, which he said was more efficient, and that the fund set up headquarters in Africa, "at the heart of the problem". FAO officials would not comment. (See Independent)
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he wants "to get our task force on the global food crisis moving at full speed" - but it seems that the task force will not hold its first meeting until next Monday when it will "study the underlying causes of the crisis and propose long-term solutions"

May 5 2008 ~ Oil price hits $120.36

Exactly four years ago on warmwell.com's oil page we reported from www.marketwatch.com, " As the price of crude oil keeps rising toward $40 a barrel and beyond, it has become increasingly clear that the world is heading toward a major oil crisis."
One article in Le Monde a couple of days earlier had stated bluntly,
".... the oil shock that promises to strike before the end of the decade is not like the ones that preceded it. ...Even if the United States succeeded in imposing its hegemony on all the oilfields in the world (outside of Russia), their army and their technology will not be able to prevail against the coming depletion of conventional oil.... The only viable path is immediate oil sobriety organized through an international agreement.....the blindness of politicians and the usual panicked overreaction of markets allows us to fear the worst.... Since the price will soon reach $100 a barrel, this will no longer be a simple oil shock -- it will be the end of the world as we know it." (Read article in full)
Bloomberg reports (May 5 2008) "Oil surged to an intraday record of $120.36 today."
(Transition initiatives are not alone in reviving the traditions of local production. Following a report in the Scotsman, the Guardian reports today that peat cutting is making a huge comeback in the Hebrides - but peat banks too are now heavily depleted.)

May 4 2008 ~ "We should get back to proper science before it is too late."

Booker's Notebook today: " .....On one hand our politicians are committing us to spending unimaginable sums on wind farms, emissions trading schemes, absurdly ambitious biofuel targets, and every kind of tax and regulation designed to reduce our "carbon footprint" - all based on blindly accepting the predictions of computer models that the planet is overheating due to our output of greenhouse gases.
On the other hand, a growing number of scientists are producing ever more evidence to show how those computer models are based on wholly inadequate data and assumptions - as is being confirmed by the behaviour of nature itself (not least the continuing non-arrival of sunspot cycle 24).
The fact is that what has been happening to the world's climate in recent years, since global temperatures ceased to rise after 1998, was not predicted by any of those officially-sponsored models. The discrepancy between their predictions and observable data becomes more glaring with every month that passes. ..... In view of what is now at stake, such quasi-religious incantations masquerading as science are something we can no longer afford. We should get back to proper science before it is too late."

May 4 2008 ~ "The cheap food era may be over "

Cheap energy and cheap food have gone together but both are now in question. The Press Association quotes the Asian Development Bank's president, Haruhiko Kuroda: "The cheap food era may be over." It reports that the bank has announced emergency funding to help poor countries and that the new aid will come in the form of "soft loans" for the governments of countries hardest hit.
"Asia is home to two thirds of the world's poor and nearly 1.7 billion people in the region live on £1 a day or less.... 60% of their spending goes towards food, and the figure rises to 75% if fuel costs are included, the bank says. .. prices of rice, for instance, had nearly tripled in the past four months. Higher food costs mean higher inflation, which will reduce consumption, savings and investment..."
Raising interest rates to control inflation can result in a serious economic slowdown. Many countries are imposing price controls or bans on food exports, but the Asian Development bank says this can discourage farmers from planting - which in turn reduces supplies and raises prices.

May 2 2008 ~ The UK - "pushing up the prices and making food less available for poor countries"

Roger Williams Lib Dem MP and Shadow DEFRA Minister Hansard ".....UK self-sufficiency in temperate or indigenous food products has fallen by about 10 per cent. over the past 10 years. That means that as a nation we are going into world markets, pushing up the prices and making food less available for poor countries." Unfortunately, Hilary Benn could do little more than talk in vague terms of "priorities". He implied support for UK farming and at the same time said that "the reason that production has come down from the peak of a decade or so ago is that we in Europe, along with others, have reformed the common agricultural policy. That is a good thing, too." (More - link mended)
Meanwhile, Bill Wiggin was reminding the House of Commons that "when we look further at the Government's biomass co-firing feedstocks, we find that a fifth of those are coming from palm oil products, which are causing deforestation and loss of habitat for the orang-utan. .."

May 2 2008 ~ "...unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves"

The current industrial farm animal production (IFAP) system often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves. "Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America" (pdf file 124 pages), is the result of a two year study in America. It recommends many ways to improve a dangerous and distressing situation, including limiting use of drugs in animals destined for the food supply. It criticises large feeding lots and calls for the phasing out of "troubling animal farming practices"
".....methods for raising food animals have generated concern and debate over just what constitutes a reasonable life for animals and what kind of quality of life we owe the animals in our care....good animal welfare can no longer be assumed based only on the absence of disease or productivity outcomes." (More)
The Commission's report gives an overview of livestock production in the US. Some of its photographs show with grim clarity what is involved in intensive methods of food production.

May 2 2008 ~ "Organic agriculture is the only option left in our looming energy crisis, when oil becomes too expensive and scarce for farming use..."

Letter from Richard Sanders of Elm Farm (Organic Research Centre) in the Independent today. ".... It is time to move on from sterile debates about GM food verses organic, about the relative killing power of organic and synthetic pesticides and whether an outdoor pig is happier than his concrete-dwelling cousin. We're running out of oil and we're running out of food. Proper organic farming allied to local food economies has minimal reliance on fossil fuels and must play a central part in future, sustainable solutions to feeding our hungry planet."

May 2 2008 ~ more than a matter of labelling regulations

The (BBC) reported yesterday that the demand for locally sourced meat is being exploited and beef labelled British has been found, in reality, to come from elsewhere ("Brazil or Botswana") But the report failed to mention the serious underlying issue that goes beyond fraud: if foreign meat is arriving without proper surveillance and testing the route for pathogens is wide open.
As one emailer writes today:
" If the origin of this meat is unidentified and has no audit trail, doesn't that mean that this meat is likely to be entering the UK (and other EU countries?) illegally? Are samples being tested for disease?"
This problem is not confined to the UK. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday:
"...Most of the funds spent on food safety are spent on outdated practices of inspecting poultry, beef and pork carcasses, even though changing agricultural practices make this a waste of government money. .... only 1 percent of imported food is inspected, even though about 60 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables and 75 percent of seafood is imported..."
When disease can wreak such havoc it is surprising that in the UK the FSA's only reported response was to call for "labelling laws to be clarified". The Trust for America's Health report on Wednesday recommended that a new agency should be responsible for all food safety and that a priority should be "inspecting foods throughout the entire food production and processing chain".

May 2 2008 ~ Tesco towns or Transition towns?

Britain's small shops and independents are being squeezed out and the Commission has ducked the issue. Dismay at the Competition Commission's Groceries Market Investigation - final report (pdf) was expressed by MPC Associates, a group of Marketing, Management & Economic Consultants specialising in Out of Town shopping development in Europe and the UK. They comment that the CC has
"completely ignored the huge trading advantages of large car parking areas.... the Commission has no understanding of the real trading advantages nor the turnovers per square foot of retail selling space concerned with Out and Edge of Town Shopping .... failed to understand that saturation levels have been reached." (read in full)
As for the the Campaign to Protect Rural England, CPRE, - even before the publication yesterday confirmed their fears, they wrote, "... The Commission has failed to put forward strong tests on diversity or on appropriate scale for new developments .." Even Andrew George's tact cannot fully hide his disappointment.

May 2 2008 ~ "change must come in the first instance from the grassroots"

Will the bottom-up local enthusiasm of the many burgeoning Transition Towns initiatives be able to inspire a saner and more human scale solution to the saturation of Tesco towns? Ironically, on the same day as theCompetition Commission report's publication yesterday, CNN reported: "Since governments and big business seem unable, or else unwilling, to deal with these problems head-on, Hopkins believes the change must come in the first instance from the grassroots."

May 1 2008 ~TB blood test clear - but all the cows to be destroyed...

Private Eye's Muckspreader this week on the misery that is the UK's bovine TB policy - and the fact that, in the Somerset farmers' attempt to get sanity from a judicial review "Mr Justice Mitting dismissed the arguments of the farmers' learned counsel, ruling that Defra's 'policy is lawful'...." It is unbearable too that
"....Tom Maidment of Pewsey, thirty-one of whose cattle had been condemned after the (gamma interferon) blood test had shown them as positive. He pleaded in vain with Defra in London for the chance to have them retested using the skin test. But, unaware of this, his local Defra Animal Health Office instructed him that his cattle should be skin tested after all. The results showed a stonking negative. Not one of his animals showed any sign of having been exposed to TB. And what was Defra's response? It naturally ordered that all the animals should nevertheless be destroyed, at the taxpayers' expense. Who gives a fig for science when someone else is footing the bill?"
Read in full and see also below for more background

May 1 2008 ~ "...people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity." Rob Hopkins

The Independent today looks at Totnes: ".... In addition to the pound, the transition town organisation offers people advice at "oil vulnerability auditing workshops" on how their businesses can wean themselves off the black stuff; and the group is in talks with the council over "edible landscapes" - herb gardens instead of ornamental verges and bushes. They have recently secured some allotments for the green-fingered, and are promoting the use of energy-saving light bulbs. Similar ideas are in the pipeline....
...change is partly the result of work done by "auditors" from the transition town organisation. " Rob Hopkins is quoted:
"...The viral nature of the growth of the transition movement has taken us all by surprise. We have gone from one transition project to there being 50 formal ones and more than 700 at the earlier stages just by word of mouth and the internet... people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity. The transition movement has been described as being 'more like a party than a protest march', and that feeling of being part of something playful and solutions-focused has undoubtedly been a part of its success."
See also warmwell's Transition page.

May 1 2008 ~ Tesco baulks at the Competition Commission's plan for an independent ombudsman

The Financial Times reports on supermarket resistance on the proposals from the Competition Commission
"... it was on the issue of suppliers that the supermarkets and the commission came to blows, with Tesco, Asda and J Sainsbury voicing concerns over plans for an ombudsman to police dealings between the grocers and suppliers. ...."
David Greene, a lawyer who has represented the Association of Convenience Stories, is quoted. He says the report made "passing gestures" to small shopowners but failed "in any way" to protect them from the dominance of the largest supermarkets. " It was "strange" the report should suggest there were "few if any problems" at a time when the OFT was probing the industry over alleged price-fixing." Read in full.

May 1 2008 ~ Government's plans to meet its renewable energy targets through offshore wind stymied by Shell.

Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of the scheme. Full story in the FT "The London Array was to be the world's biggest offshore wind farm, with 341 turbines in the Thames Estuary. Shell said on Wednesday it was seeking to sell its stake, while increasing its investment in onshore wind farms in the US...."
The FT also reported last month on the defiant words of Shell's chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, when he implied that Shell had 55 years of oil reserves. But this included investments that are far from being in traditional, easy-to-access fields and Shell, like all the others, is moving increasingly into difficult, expensive and carbon-intensive unconventional fuels, such as Canada's oil sands. Shell is also the world's largest distributor of biofuels. Although Mr van der Veer asserts that "what is unconventional today will be conventional tomorrow " extraction of oil from food crops is a disaster while extraction from oil sands is in itself highly energy intensive and can be fatal to wildlife. Yesterday, hundreds of ducks were found dead or dying in a toxic tailings pond belonging to oilsands giant Syncrude Canada Ltd. Newsnet was told that it's the worst such incident in the history of northern Alberta's oilsands.

28/29 April ~'commodities super-cycle' likely to cause starvation on an epic scale.

An article at www.countercurrents.org comments bluntly: "Major ecological disasters, such as the recent drought in Australia, which hit food production and drive up basic commodity prices, are good news for the corporate investor.....the biofuel sector is currently regarded as a potential source of huge returns for investors. .."
The Globe and Mail
"Geneva - UN officials on Monday blamed market speculation for the recent jump in global food prices and called for a concerted effort to ensure the world's poor can afford to feed themselves.
"We have enough food on this planet today to feed everyone," the head of the UN Environment Program, Achim Steiner, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. But, he added, "the way that markets and supplies are currently being influenced by perceptions of future markets is distorting access to that food." "Real people and real lives are being affected by a dimension that is essentially speculative," said Mr. Steiner, noting that millions have found themselves unable to pay for food since prices began to rise steeply at the start of the year..."
And, as we reported below, Jean Ziegler, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, agrees, saying "..the very big investor hedge fund speculative investors" are largely to blame for the present crisis while the switch to biofuels at the expense of traditional forms of agriculture is nothing less than a "crime against humanity."

Monday 28 April ~ 'devastating policies' which are weakening the world economy, increasing food shortages and destruction of forest across the planet.

We have received this cri-de-coeur from a shivering reader in Australia: "Will someone PLEASE tell the doom sayers that there is no global warming but the climate IS changing for the worse and it has absolutely nothing to do with you and me!"
The brilliant young Israeli astrophysicist Nir Shariv, formerly a adherent of the man-made global warming creed, now says, "Solar activity can explain a large part of the 20th-century global warming....cutbacks in future C02 emissions will not matter much in terms of the climate..."
On 14 April this year, the UN's Climate Committee, the IPCC, was challenged by four scientists, including one Nobel Peace Prize winner, who said that while CO2 has risen dramatically for the last ten years, world temperatures have been falling. Their letter (pdf) :
"Before we radically rearrange the political economy of the world because some scientists claim anthropogenic CO2 is the cause of climate change, it might be worthwhile for anyone taking a position on the topic to consider whether or not this is indeed "well settled science." Dr. Richard Lindzen, MIT, March 2008"
The current dogma that CO2 is the man-made villain in the story of global warming can brook no such denial. It's hard not to be impressed by some of the evidence, though. It appears that the sun has indeed "gone quiet, very quiet" source and has slowed its internal dynamo as it did in the last period of low solar activity, lasting from about 1790 to 1830 (the Dalton Minimum).

Monday 28 April ~ "...a megalomaniac idea that the recent rise of half a degree would have been caused by man"

The writer of another expert and fascinating website giving a 2000-year historical perspective to what it calls the 200-year sunspot cycle remarks,
"Considering the evidence it looks like a megalomaniac idea that the recent rise of half a degree would have been caused by man. So great are the natural variations. But man has always wanted to be in the center of the world."
On 23 Apr 08 we read, (see Geophysicist) "The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon."

Saturday 26 April ~ seawater-irrigated agricultural areas would allow biofuel to make sense

An intriguing letter in the Times (many thanks to Anne Lambourn for the link) refers to biofuels made from the oil rich seeds of saltwater-loving plants (halophytes), irrigated by sea water. Such crops do not compete for fresh water-irrigated land. There is more on the NASA website about this fascinating idea and the pdf file is clear and well illustrated
"....Considering that 43% of the Earth's landmass is arid or semi-arid, and 97% of the Earth's water is seawater, the potential for fuel-food feedstock halophyte production becomes very large. As an example, if the Sahara desert (8.6×108ha) were made capable to support halophyte agriculture, and if production were increased to 100 bbl/ha-yr of bio-oil, it alone would supply 421.4 Q, or 94% of the 2004 world energy consumption..this would either free up arable food-producing land or itself become a source of food where the demand for food outpaces that for fuel. Most importantly, it would free up the use of freshwater (only 3% of Earth's water) for other purpose.."
Read in full.

Saturday 26 April ~ What farmers need to step up production - less red tape

Anthony Gibson sums it up in the Times: "...not a return to production subsidies so much as less red tape, a big increase in investment in research and development and some long overdue words of support and encouragement." Read full letter.

Friday 25th April 2008 ~ seminar discussing African Horse Sickness (AHS) and West Nile Virus

Horse and Hound say that all interested owners are invited and it is to be
"hosted by the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (TBA) and The Horse Trust.
"Emerging Equine Diseases" takes place on Monday 23 June at Tattersalls, Park Paddocks, Newmarket, Suffolk. Experts from Defra, Pirbright (the government laboratory) and the Animal Health Trust will discuss subjects including disease prevention, insect vectors, the strategy for containment and the development of an AHS vaccine."
Leading international speakers include Professor Alan Guthrie from University of Pretoria, South Africa, Dr Josie Traub-Dargatz, Colorado State University, USA, Professor Philip Mellor and Dr Chris Oura from the UK's Institute of Animal Health, Pirbright, Dr Jules Minke from Merial, France and representatives from Defra. There will be ample opportunity for questions and discussion throughout the day. Tickets cost £30. To reserve a place go to www.thetba.co.uk or telephone the TBA on 01638 661321. See also warmwell's African Horse Sickness page

Thursday 24th April 2008 ~ "a pattern of ignoring and manipulating science"

Wherever the truth lies in matters such as Global Warming, the causes of vCJD, Genetic Modification and so on, we have been worried for several years that any scientist having the audacity to question received dogma, in which so many millions and so many reputations are invested, is treated as a heretic or smeared as something worse. Today we have been sent this link from AP news (with thanks to Norm in Australia) reporting that in America, 60 percent of senior scientists responding to a questionnaire - chemists, toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts in the life and environmental sciences -reported personally experiencing what they viewed as political interference in their work over the last five years -in other words, that they feel they have been pressured by superiors to skew their findings. Read article.

Thursday 24th April 2008 ~ Biovet's Foot and Mouth vaccines will enter the market this year

India, which has 20% of the global cattle population, now wants to get rid of Foot and Mouth disease by vaccination and not culling. 200 million doses of vaccine a year are to be produced to protect them.
Yesterday, Biovet Pvt. Ltd announced the commissioning of Asia's first bio-safety level 4 (BSL-4) manufacturing facility. The Wall Street Journal:
"The global demand for FMD vaccines is about 500 million doses and Biovet could very well break even just by exporting the vaccines to countries in West Asia..."
Krishna Ella, founder of Bharat Biotech International Ltd talks of "addressing a significant gap in the application of new technologies to animal health care and a potentially huge market"
(See also www.financialexpress.com)
Cutting edge vaccines and on-site rapid diagnosis provide the only practical and humane way forward in halting the ever-increasing global spread of such damaging diseases.

Thursday 24th April 2008 ~The best preparation is to have a vaccine waiting and ready for use

On the subject of African Horse Sickness, Dr Watkins says we cannot assume - particularly after our Bluetongue experience in Northern Europe - that any AHS outbreak is going to be small nor easily controlled by culling. In Dr Watkins' view, culling horses would be totally unnecessary if a drug company such as Fort Dodge were commissioned and the vaccine and its storage paid for. She asks,
"Who will develop, license and manufacture this suite of killed African Horse Sickness vaccines covering all 9 serotypes? Who will pay for it? Certainly Europe and DEFRA will not. Will the horse industry pay for it?.... if they do, they would be in a powerful position to negociate sensible and humane terms for the use of the vaccine with the authorities. ... ..." Read in full
As Dr Meiswinkel says below "There is NO chance that the culling of horses for the control of AHS would be tolerated by the equine industry."

Thursday 24 April ~ The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela and Cuba's vice-president plan a £50 million pound scheme to combat the impact of rising food prices

The BBC reports that the host of the Latin American summit, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, said the food crisis was "the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of the capitalist model" and he told fellow leaders that they needed to create a distribution network "so we don't fall into the hands of intermediaries and speculators, which stop millions from receiving food"
The ALBA trading bloc was formed by Mr Chavez as an alternative to US-backed free-trade agreements. Wikipedia calls it an international cooperation organization based upon the idea of social, political, and economic integration between the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Daniel Ortega says of the food crisis, "This issue is really crucial for the future of our people, most of all to the people of the poorest countries."

Thursday 24 April ~ Federal regulators are backing away from two proposals that would have allowed institutional investors to expand their stake

Energy prices, poor global crop yields, increased demand from China and India and the weak U.S. dollar have all helped to make food prices soar. But the UN's special rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, below, is not alone in blaming "..the very big investor hedge fund speculative investors"
Washington's Globe and Mail agrees: "...another factor has exacerbated these price increases, and incited unpredictable gyrations in the futures market: the growing clout of financial speculators, like large index funds and hedge funds."
Farmers have in the past been able to offset financial risk by selling future crops at a locked-in price. But the part played by financial speculation in food, fuel and fibres is thought to have been driving up prices and causing havoc in the markets. There had been alarm that rules were going to be changed allowing speculators to expand their stake even further. However, the New York Times reports that in the US "... federal regulators are backing away from two proposals that would have allowed institutional investors to expand their stake..."

April 24 ~ Since January, big rice-producing nations including India, China, Vietnam and Egypt have capped export

The Independent today reports that "... Wal-Mart's cash-and-carry division Sam's Club is limiting customers to four 9kg bags each to prevent a run on stock. Managers at some branches of Costco, the US's biggest cash-and-carry supplier, are limiting sales of rice and flour. The firm's chief executive James Sinegal said he believed media reports of global food shortages had fuelled the surge...World rice stocks are at their lowest since the Bangladesh famine of the mid-70s and production this year is not expected to meet the 430 million tonnes likely to be consumed globally. The situation has boiled over into mass protests, riots and looting in countries including Mauritania, Senegal, Yemen, Guinea, Mexico, Morocco and Uzbekistan. In Haiti, the price of rice, beans and fruit rose by 50 per cent in the past year. Six people died in demonstrations earlier this month. ..."

Wednesday 23 April 2008 ~"this new speculation, this flaring speculation is driving up the prices...it's silent mass murder"

Biofuels are not the only reason why food prices are soaring. The UN's special rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, pulls no punches in blaming "..the very big investor hedge fund speculative investors" who moved out of the financial market and moved into the market of "agrarian raw material - rice, wheat, sugar and so on". (See transcript from the Australian PM program broadcast around Australia on Radio National )
It was Jean Ziegler who said on Sunday (Reuters) that he was bound to highlight the "madness" of people who think that hunger is down to fate.
"Hunger has not been down to fate for a long time ... This is silent mass murder," he said in an interview.
He blamed globalisation for "monopolising the riches of the earth" and said multinationals were responsible for a type of "structural violence".
"And we have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror. We have to put a stop to this," he said.
But Jean Zielgler is no friend to biofuels either. On 26 October 2007 he told a news conference at the UN that it was a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into biofuel and called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt the growing "catastrophe" for poor people. ." (Independent)
AFP reports that Gordon Brown has vowed to look again at government targets for use of biofuels.

Wednesday 23 April 2008 ~ Oil is now within striking distance of $120 a barrel. Grains prices still rising

The FT paints a grim picture today: "Chinese demand for oil is accelerating ahead of the Olympics with crude oil imports up by almost a quarter to 4.07m barrels a day in March, compared with the same month last year. ... In Nigeria, militants attacked two Shell pipelines on Monday..... in an effort to reassure the market, Opec's secretary general highlighted the cartel's plans to expand capacity. ... However, Opec has no plans to meet before September, suggesting little prospect of any relief on supplies before then.
In agricultural markets, corn prices rose ... senior commodity analyst at Ag Resource, warned that more poor weather could affect germination rates and lower yields below the USDA's current projections. .. Strength in grain prices and concerns about the impact of export restrictions on tight global supplies pushed rice prices higher ..." (Oil depletion page)

Wednesday 23 April 2008 ~ "... enthusiasm for growing your own is stronger than ever."

Peterborough Today: ".... Holding an allotment may have gone out of fashion for a while, once we had recovered from the austere war years and popping to the shops seemed an easier alternative, but today it's very much back in vogue. Celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver extol the virtues of growing your own and more and more young people are taking up the spade. In Peterborough, the people renting the 1,300 allotment plots from the city council range in age from 20 to 90. Three years ago the occupancy rate was 50 per cent, but today it is 78 per cent, and at least nine of the council's 24 sites have waiting lists...." As Rob Hopkins has said, "We need to relearn the skills that sustained our ancestors; crafts, local medicines, the great art of growing food. This is a big challenge. This is THE big challenge."

Wednesday 23 April 2008 ~ Shakespeare's birthday today - and the words of one of his wisest creations:

"Sir, I am a true labourer:
I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness, glad of other men's good, content with my harm, and the greatest of my pride is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck." As You Like It Act 3
Smallholding is becoming ever more popular. A modern day Corin is Alan Beat who, with his equally talented wife, Rosie, runs a sixteen acre smallholding in the upper Tamar valley. Highly recommended is his "A Start in Smallholding." See also the Transition Initiative page

Tuesday 22 April 2008 ~ "food and oil prices "risk becoming a destabilising force in the global economy".

The FT today reported that record global food prices will be on the agenda of the Group of Eight heads of state summit in July for the first time in almost 30 years.
".....John Lipsky, the IMF's deputy managing director, said in a speech in Rome to an energy forum that the rise in commodities prices required a "globally coherent response", as prices for food and oil had reached a level that could destabilise the global economy. His warning contrasts with the institution's much milder comments at its recent spring meeting, when it said: "Inflationary risks - notably from higher food, energy and other commodity prices - have risen."
The UN secretary-general has warned that the crisis in food and fuel prices "could trigger a cascade of other multiple crises . . . affecting economic growth, social progress, and even political security around the world."

Monday 21 April 2008 ~ Holland wrinkles its nose at London Stink claim

We hear that the NFU's claim that the manure stink in London at the weekend was caused by the smell of slurry spreading in Holland reaching us has raised a few Dutch eyebrows:
"In Holland nobody I know has smelled anything at all. We Dutch are either used to it and appreciate that farming is not smell-free - or it is a stink in a teacup..." See article and translation
(All the same, the NFU is right, surely, to warn against the consequences of changing the rules about slurry spreading as part of tightening up nitrate regulations.)

Monday 21 April 2008 ~ "I am not into scaremongering. But AHS demands that we look directly into its eye - because this is a no-nonsense disease."

Warmwell.com is very grateful to have received this email from Dr Rudy Meiswinkel for publication on the subject of African Horse Sickness. If anyone understands the risk to the UK it is he. Extract
"....with a mortality rate of close to 100% you can be sure that if AHS was to strike it would cause a kind of mayhem that the veterinary authorities might well not be prepared for.
With BTV-8 in northern Europe we are seeing how difficult it is to anticipate the spread of the virus because of the movement of infected animals and the random dispersal of infected midges; both these avenues of virus movement are impossible to control effectively. Once this was realised (with realisation coming only through experience!) the competent authorities opted for widespread vaccination, but only after 15 months had passed. If AHS was to arrive in northern Europe there is NO WAY that a wait of 15 months could be allowed...."
Read in full on warmwell's AHS page

April 20 2008 ~".. as many as 90% of the horse population could be infected and compulsorily slaughtered".

African Horse Sickness may sound like a far off threat - but the same Culicoides midges that spread bluetongue in Africa also act as vectors of AHS. One remembers the kind of wishful thinking that bluetongue midges "may not be able to survive the British climate" in this BBC report on the first bluetongue case last year - and in which farming leaders were reported as saying they were "confident there would not be a major bluetongue outbreak".
The stark reality, however, is that our island boundaries do not protect us. Nor does the "wait and see rather than prepare" mindset whose only "cure", when the worst happens, is slaughter. The UK reluctance, as always, to commit to vaccine production may lead to disaster for horses and owners, Horse and Hound this week are under no illusions about the seriousness of the danger:
"Jonathon Shaw has confirmed horse owners would only be given £1 compensation by Defra - no matter how valuable the animal."
Read in full (Warmwell will be starting an AHS page next week.)

Sunday 20 April 2008 ~ " A billion people overweight, 800 million people who are starving, who are hungry, who are not fed enough...."

Raj Patel's "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System" is now out in paperback. In an interview, Mr Patel explained (interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now):
"....if you imagine a sort of hourglass, at the top there are the millions of farmers who grow the food that we eat, and at the bottom there are billions of us consumers, and in the middle there are just a handful of corporations that mediate between the people who grow our food and us.... able to drive prices down for farmers... And then you're processing the food so that what we end up with is food that is rich in salts and fats and sugars, food that tends to make us want to buy more, food that makes us obese....the environments in which poor people find themselves are more conducive to being overweight and to be unhealthy in the cities - and for poor people in the fields, those kinds of prices from the industrial food system are driving them out of business..."
Reviewers mention the book's optimism: "... it's not just bleak - the stories of resistance are inspiring..." and "... the soft underbelly of this system is susceptible to positive change by grass roots movements."
You can listen to the interview online.

April 17 ~ Peat bogs are Europe's rainforests - and under threat

In their centralised zeal for energy, building ever more on-shore giant wind turbines in the most inappropriate places without thinking of the consequences, our leaders, ironically, are in danger of making things far worse. Wind farms cannot of themselves reduce emissions and there is no evidence that they reduce emissions by displacing fossil power station generation either. However, the infrastructure of wind farms does dry out peat bogs - which irreversibly destroys the peat's ability to act as a carbon sink. The dried peat then releases "tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere." The Scotsman reports today that Struan Stevenson, MEP:
"... wanted the EC to call a moratorium of building on peat land while they carry out a more detailed analysis. But that is beyond the commission's power, apparently," he said.
The Scotsman article concludes: "Mr Stevenson believes more thought is needed on how to move forward with renewable energy, including wind farms. "We are rushing towards them without thinking of the consequences and whether these processes are sustainable," he said." ( See also windfarm page)

April 17 2008 ~ "... some great old photos of Clapham Common dug up for allotments, and people growing food on the rooftops of London during World War Two."

Middlesbrough Council commissioned a map from designers Andre Viljoen and Katrina Bohn - authors of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes - which identifies existing and prospective foodgrowing sites in Middlesbrough. It details existing allotments in the town, maps surplus land and highlights connections between the town and local food producers. This is a plan for the local authority and others to consider as a new context for strategies towards a more local and sustainable food economy. (see Designs of the Time and see below on Middlesborough)
Rob Hopkins' review of Andre Viljoen's book on continuous productive urban landscape says "it is a hugely readable, passionate and visionary book. It aims to put productive land use at the centre of urban design. ... He advocates creating networks of green spaces throughout the city (he takes London as his case study), which are connected by cycle paths and walkways, which combine urban agriculture, recreation and a wealth of other uses. ...a book of the most profound importance at this point in history...We should view our cities as much in terms of being productive spaces as we view our rural areas...." See review.

April 17 2008 ~ A system integrating good housing to landscape, conservation of natural resources - a very practical design system. Permaculture.

The video about permaculture by Bill Mollison, the movement's co-founder, takes the viewer through its history and developments. The video begins dramatically with a plane dropping food parcels onto a parched landscape - the commentary:
"When the Western world sees food drops for the starving of Africa we think it will never happen to us, but there's a man in Australia who says that's where we're heading..."
You can watch it free on the internet 'In Grave Danger of Falling Food' Amazingly, it was made almost twenty years ago,

April 17 2008 ~ Britain farmland - more and more being bought up by rich investors

As we reported in January and again in February , farmland is being scrambled for by the rich and canny, often from abroad. The Independent today reports that the cost of rural land has risen 40 per cent - but the article does not tell the whole story. We are reminded of the words of Barton Briggs, one of Wall Street's most legendary investment strategists, who has been advising those with money to buy up farms and stock them with "seed, fertiliser, canned food. wine, medicine. clothes etc." The "etc" could well mean guns to keep away the rest of us. How very different from the practical solutions offered by Rob Hopkins and the Transition Handbook
Dr James Bellini in January urgently advocated "localisation" He talked of "localvores who now advocate the growing of food locally - that's what life was like before the industrialisation of food." Handing over our local food economy to large industrial corporations will very soon be seen to have been suicidally foolish. The move back towards localisation has never before been so urgently needed. And it is now a whole year since the report "Fuelling a Food Crisis" (pdf) by Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas warned that oil stocks and EU trade and energy policies were threatening food price hikes - and could cause the UK to be vulnerable to food shortages for the first time since the Second World War.

April 17 2008 ~ "the need for affordable food versus the need for renewable energy..."

Current economic uncertainty has led producers to hoard rice - and the rich now see it as a lucrative or at least safe bet. Rice consumption has outpaced production. Global reserves have decreased by half just since 2000 and in the last three months alone, prices have doubled to about $1,000 a metric ton for the high grades. Australian farmers who used to supply 20 million people around the world are giving up on rice. Ever scarcer water resources are being directed to other grains and towards livestock. Poor countries such as Senegal and Haiti each import four-fifths of their rice - their dietary staple - and are being left in the lurch. There is rice disease in Vietnam. The NYT today comments:
"The global agricultural crisis is threatening to become political... The World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization called on major agricultural nations to overhaul policies to avoid a social explosion from rising food prices."
Even though rice itself is not used to produce biuofuel, the poor nations whose subsidies from rich countries are given to support biofuels, are facing civil unrest and actual starvation. Can the rich nations' leaders respond to the reality that biofuels are killing people - and work instead towards getting off oil dependency - as in the highly successful Transition initiatives?

April 16 2008 ~ Professor Bob Watson "Can we change our priorities in the agricultural sector?"

850 million in developing countries do not have access to the food they need. Energy 'experts' promoting biofuels in the EU have not sought the views of agriculture specialists or soil scientists on biofuels and Professor Watson's thoughts as chief environment scientist on the sustainability of biofuels have never been asked for - but he warns that the policies have run ahead of the science.
Yesterday, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science & Technology for Development (IAASTD) under Prof Watson published a report stating that failing to take action on food shortages and "continuing to focus on production alone will undermine our agricultural capital and leave us with an increasingly degraded and divided planet." (See video report) Ironically, it was the very day that the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) made 2.5% biofuels a compulsory ingredient at the pumps. CNN reports that "Many people on both sides of the debate are pushing for a second generation of renewables from sources like wood waste, non-edible crops and crops that grow much faster." See also New York Times today on the IAASTD report.

April 16 2008 ~ The British Government failed to sign the IAASTD accord.

Prof Watson's deeply-held view that "Business as Usual will not solve the problems of poverty and hunger" appear to cut little ice with the UK, USA, Canada and Australia who have all failed to sign the final report after disagreement over its conclusions about trade. The IAASTD report's key questions include how to enhance production of more nutritious food in a way that has
"no adverse consequences for the environment - indeed positive consequences and in a way that really helps the poorest of the poor. We believe we can build on the successes of the past and make the system more participatory ...making sure we understand the needs of women, who play an absolutely key role in agriculture in developing countries, and we need to combine local and indigenous knowledge with the knowledge that we have in the more formal part of society - in the universities and think tanks and governments...Some trade policies of today certainly help some people but don't help the poorest of the poor.."
See also Farmers Guardian d You can hear Professor Watson on YouTube talking with great seriousness about social exclusion and environmental degradation.

April 16 2008 ~ There is emphasis in the report on proven traditional agricultural methods from around the world as much as on the new technologies.

The controversial questions surrounding GM were not dodged by the IAASTD report. The fact that we still don't know how GMOs will alter biodiversity, eco-system function or affect human health is seen as important. "We do know," says the video report, "that corporate control over seeds can undermine the livelihoods of small scale farmers." As for the combined expertise of the smaller farmers across the world, the four year study took pains to collect information. We learn, for example, that after Hurrican Mitch in 1998, farmers in one small area of Honduras using "zero tillage" (which helps prevent mud slides) managed to feed the rest of the country.

April 15 2008 ~ It has exacerbated a global food crisis - yet our petrol tanks must now contain at least 2.5 per cent biofuel...

The Independent: "Amid growing evidence that massive investment in biofuels by developed countries is helping to cause a food crisis for the world's poor, the ecological cost of the push to produce billions of litres of petrol and diesel from plant sources will be highlighted today with protests across the country..... Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, said: "Thanks to flaws in the Government's system, companies selling these fuels will even be allowed to get away with saying that they don't know whether they've been sourced sustainably or not. This makes a mockery of the entire idea of sustainability standards."

April 15 2008 ~ "the period of intense oil production [growth] is over".

Even today's story of a possible big oil discovery in Brazil may not delay the ending of cheap oil by very much. The Carioca field ( BM-S-9) is located beneath a layer of salt in water more than 2,000 meters deep. No official information is available yet to confirm the guess that there might be 33 billion barrels of oil there - and the cost of extracting it will be very much higher than in conventional oil wells. Extracting and turning the oil into usable form will also be extremely energy-intensive. Only recently has the physical technology even existed to drill in water that deep. It will be a difficult and expensive enterprise. However, it may perhaps alter the policies of the country most desperate to secure supplies.
Russia, until recently considered the most promising oil region outside the Middle East is now admitting stagnation and that the period of intense oil production is over. The FT today reports that the vice-president of Lukoil has compared Russia with the North Sea and Mexico, where oil production is declining dramatically - and even the Russian government has admitted that production growth has stagnated.
The thirst of governments for cheap energy and the mad dash for bio-fuel is, of course, what ultimately lies behind the food riots now spreading across the planet. There are now only 8 to 12 weeks of cereal stocks left in the world.

April 15 ~ "It is hard to understand how two such different food economies could occupy the same planet, until you realise that they feed off each other"

"the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol ... could feed one person for a year" George Monbiot today tells us in the Guardian that this year, global stockpiles of cereals will decline by around 53 million tonnes - while the production of biofuels will consume almost 100 million tonnes. He reminds us that Ruth Kelly promised that "if we need to adjust policy in the light of new evidence, we will" - and wonders what new evidence she requires.
"...In the midst of a global humanitarian crisis, we have just become legally obliged to use food as fuel. It is a crime against humanity, in which every driver in this country has been forced to participate... While 100m tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760 million tonnes will ... feed animals - which could cover the global food deficit 14 times. ..."
Having looked askance at a purely vegan diet, and noted that although pigs and chickens feed more efficiently than grain-fed beef - unless they are free range, "the monstrous conditions in which they are kept" becomes an issue, he encourages us to consider a freshwater fish that can be raised entirely on vegetable matter. He then draws attention to the surreal nature of our awareness of the global crisis: "While half the world wonders whether it will eat at all, I am pondering which of our endless choices we should take...." A salutary article - but it does rather suggest that George Monbiot thinks that there is no immediate worry for the UK. Of course the prosperous West must do what it can to give practical help to the worst affected - but unless we quickly revamp our whole thinking about energy and local food supply - and consign bio-fuel targets to the scrap heap - food riots could be a reality here too.

April 14 2008 ~ "we aren't boycotting supermarkets entirely but we are gradually weaning people off them"

Good news from a self-sufficient village in Hampshire. The VAT registered village cooperative in the village of Martin has been successfully operating for nearly four years now. There are 164 families there and 101 of them signed up to work the "Future Farms" rota. The Mail reports:
"Every year more produce is added and the scheme - likened to a community allotment - has breathed new life into a village that has only a church and a working men's club. .... the farm sells 45 types of vegetables, 100 chickens a week, 20 pigs a year, 32 lambs a year and is now starting to sell beef.
Members of the committee include a consultant radiologist, a horticulturalist, a computer programmer, a former probation officer, a secretary and a council worker."
The strengths of such a scheme are many; not least that so many people are working together for a common purpose. The only food not being moved more than about two miles is the meat animals - who have to be sent to slaughter some distance away since, because of a shameful series of cock-ups, we have lost the majority of our good local slaughterhouses.

April 14 2008 ~ The animal welfare issues of prolonged transport to slaughter.

.. have been well documented by CIWF What is so difficult to bear is how unnecessary was the demise of small local slaughterhouses. In the early 90s, hundreds of small and medium sized abattoir owners had suddenly to comply with wholly inappropriate and unnecessary "harmonising" legislation. It involved vast expenditure. Closures took place all over the country and, instead of the small slaughterhouses often attached to local butchers shops, animals for slaughter began having to travel 100 miles and often more to their final uncomfortable destination. The claim that this was for "hygiene" reasons was soon exploded and, (see "The Great Deception" page 304) John Gummer then gave the "curiously disingenuous explanation that the owners had "taken a commercial decision not to invest in the future of their businesses"..."
And on it goes.
As Steve Dube wrote in the Western Mail in January: "...Most of the post-World War Two network of local slaughterhouses closed in the face of a barrage of regulations before the turn of the (21st) century... the trend could continue if Britain adopts new proposals from the Meat Hygiene Service and the Food Standards Agency.."

April 14 2008 ~ We need "intelligent growth"

Suicidal "Growth" is leading to famine. "How can we persuade economists and governments to see 'growth' in another light?" asks Stephan Harding in this month's Resurgence "...we in the affluent North must grow our abilities for living simply - we need to learn to do well with less. Intelligent growth also involves the growth and recovery of the soil. We need to allow soil to thicken wherever it has been depleted by the depredations of the agribusiness farmers and their corporate overlords..."
Things are looking ever bleaker this week and food riots are being reported across the globe.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is providing "short-term measures" such as providing subsidised fertiliser in three African countries affected by food riots (see All Africa.com)

April 14 2008 ~ The FAO's measures cannot surely do much more than paper over a few cracks.

Fertiliser - subsidised or not - is produced with fossil fuels. Some are derived from natural gas, and gas prices have climbed, too.
The Globe and Mail on Saturday:
"... It's almost impossible to boost production quickly, because of land and water shortages and competition from biofuels."
The urgent warnings of such writers as Stephan Harding on "intelligent growth" have never seemed more timely. World leaders may have agreed on Sunday (FT) to make the "global food crisis" the top priority of the next Group of Eight meeting in Tokyo, agreeing that "more work should be done on possible links between biofuel crops and food prices" - but only a fundamental rethink about the limits of economic growth can help now, and one fears these leaders are entrenched in the myth that growth can be limitless. Hope is now centred on local initiatives who are in touch with reality on the ground - and in the earth.

April 13 2008 ~ Mass starvation warning

When it is the head of the International Monetary Fund who warns of hundreds of thousands of deaths from starvation and calls for strong action on food prices there can no longer be any denial of the seriousness of the situation globally. At a meeting in Washington, " ....Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that social unrest from continuing food price inflation could cause conflict. There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt."BBC
The concern of the IMF is not a merely humanitarian one. The situation could affect developed western nations because of trade inbalances and "the still unfolding financial market turmoil and... the potential worsening" of housing markets and the credit crunch.

April 12 2008 ~ "people whose lives are being blighted by bland corporate values - the stallholders and publicans and shopkeepers whose jobs are hanging by a thread..."

If we needed evidence that a return to a pre-oil-dependent life could actually be better for us, two books reviewed today in the Guardian might give us pause - (and thanks to Norm in Australia for this link.) After examining the nasty reality behind so much of our thoughtless consumerism, it concludes:
"... - the grinning corporate culture of "leisure", and expensive cups of coffee, and apartment complexes, and piped music, and apples that are all the same size. "Although things are officially better," says Kingsnorth, "unofficially we feel worse." And why are we allowing this to happen? "Because we must grow," he says. "We must develop, and regenerate, and push forward. We must consume and profit and invest, and the end goal, while unclear, must not be discussed, and must certainly not be questioned."
But what is so inspiring about the new awareness - Transition community projects, Kitchen Gardeners International and all the clear-eyed, bottom-up plans for urban and rural regeneration - is that it is discussing and questioning - and realising that the assumption that juggernaut economic growth brings health and happiness is an empty and dangerous one. For human sanity and development, perhaps the monster is running out of steam just in time.

April 11/12 2008 ~ "The backyard organic garden is sounding less and less like an elite affectation, every single day."

In an article at Salon, "Peak Weed Killer?", we read that industrial monoculture will soon be in trouble because of the "relentless ascent of synthetic fertilizer prices" - this includes price hikes for glyphosate -- a.k.a. Monsanto's RoundUp --because of the increasing scarcity of a key ingredient: phosphorus:
"...rock phosphate, the source of nearly all industrially-used phosphorus, is a non-renewable resource....synthetic fertilizer and industrial herbicide prices are rising because of growing demand, resource scarcity, and energy costs. That backyard organic garden, presumably recycling every nutrient possible, is sounding less and less like an elite affectation, every single day."
Read article

April 11 2008 ~ What is the UK Government's position on Food Security?

The 2002 DEFRA paper on food security opined,
" National food security is hugely more relevant for developing countries than the rich countries of Western Europe." (p23) and asserted that there was enough food to feed the world. Self-sufficiency was "an undesirable goal for a trading nation" (and wouldn't work anyway)
All this complacency notwithstanding, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas, was inaugurated on Tony Blair's last full day as Prime Minister, Tuesday 26th June 2007. Two months later, the then CSA, David King, told them, "generally, I am personally not convinced that focusing on the "peak oil" concept is the most helpful approach."
Today we were told in an email that when Margaret Beckett was asked by Farmer's Weekly correspondent David Richardson how much of the nation's food should be produced at home, she retorted that "she would not dream of wasting her own or her staff's time on such a ridiculous exercise. Food security is not an issue " she said.
Thankfully, there are committed experts who are able to see things with a little more clarity. Professor Tim Lang gave a talk ('Food Security & Peak Oil') to the All-Party group at Portcullis House on March 25th

April 11 2008 ~ role for gardening and urban agriculture

Professor Lang's talk sets out several relevant questions in a Powerpoint Presentation that effectively communicates a sense of urgency. One slide asks:
• If 95% food is oil-dependent, what would a post or 'less oil' food economy look like?
• Which sectors need to change most?
• Cost: prices need to rise but how much would they? SDC $100 showed +5-10%
• Skills on farm - role for gardening / urban agriculture?
There is, of course, no official food security policy yet. Gundula Azeez (Soil Association) also gave an audio & Powerpoint presentation at the meeting and the All-Party Parliamentary Group now has their own website where several interesting links can be found.

April 11 2008 ~ Family farms and urban gardens

Roger Doiron is Founding Director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit network of 5200 gardeners from 90 countries
source "My job as a sustainable foods advocate is to convince people that family farms and gardens not only can feed the world, they're the only thing that can in the long run. Big, industrial agriculture ....would not have been possible were it not for the cheap and easily-obtained inputs on which industrial foods depend, the most important of which is oil. It has been estimated that our highly-industrialized food system in the US requires 5-10 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1 calorie of food energy.
In recognition of planting season and the intersecting geopolitical crises now upon us, I am proposing that home growers finally catch a break. Not from bugs, weather, or clunky garden shoes, but from taxes.....why not offer incentives for solar-powered, healthy food production in their backyard?... "
The Kitchen Gardeners International website carries a wonderful photo of urban food growing.

April 11 2008 ~ "people want to make it a mainstream activity"

A recent Guardian article suggests very seriously that the growing of fruit and vegetables in town-centre planters and parks could be a blueprint for the future
"....Groundwork South Tees advised schools, mental health hospitals, residential care homes and retailers on planting and growing many varieties of herbs, vegetables and fruit. Containers of different sizes were used so people could cultivate whatever space they had.
Middlesbrough borough council turned over parkland, town-centre planters and other landholdings for fruit and vegetable growing. The eight-month project culminated in a town meal outside the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where up to 8,000 people shared meals from the food that had been grown.
This year, Middlesbrough plans to supply seeds and containers to anyone interested, and already has 2,000 individuals and groups lined up, including 31 out of 51 schools, with 280 growing sites."
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, knows as well as anyone that the era of cheap food in the UK is over, and that the nation is "sleepwalking into a crisis". With rising oil and food prices the idea of urban farming in the UK is of vital importance - but the fundamental problem is that so much land has ended up in the hands of private developers.

April 11 2008 ~ Governments are racing to secure food imports

The Financial Times today:
"Governments are racing to strike secretive barter and bilateral agreements with food-exporting countries to secure scarce supplies as the price of agricultural commodities jump to record highs...The moves coincide with a significant tightening of the global food market as leading exporters of agricultural commodities ban foreign sales. The government-to-government contracts could bypass those restrictions, diplomats say...."
Can anyone still be in doubt at the seriousness of the situation? But a glance at mainstream headlines shows little attempt to inform and warn. Reuters does carry a financial story which contains the line "surging food and fuel prices risked triggering political upheaval in the world's poorest countries.." Bilateral agriculture contracts now happening behind closed doors shows just how short sighted has been our abandonment of self-sufficiency, our dependence on "cheap" imports and the government's apparent inability to understand the vital importance of farming and food security.

April 10 2008 ~ " waves of unrest around the world...all related to the food and fuel prices"

The UN fears that governments may be toppled and that food riots could spread, fanned by hunger, frustration and global television coverage. The Independent's story is not just about the rioting of those literally starving in Haiti.
" In Manila, troops armed with M-16 rifles now oversee the sale of subsidised rice... In Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon there have been protests in recent weeks all related to the food and fuel prices. ...."
The UN is "helpless in the face of the spreading crisis and it can only advise governments to improve crop irrigation, storage facilities as well as infrastructure. .."
The article also looks briefly at the deteriorating situation in Morocco, Indonesia, Cameroon, Egypt, and Pakistan. Does the UK still think it can continue as if we are in a "post agricultural era" and that cheap imports are always going to be available to feed the country? (Oil prices jumped to above $112 a barrel on Wednesday. According to Matthew Simmons, the current highs of $100 per barrel are "cheap". ... he is more concerned about energy shortages than the rising price of oil.- see peak oil page)

April 9/10 2008 ~ 33 nations from Mexico to Yemen may face "social unrest''

Dr Stephen M Apatow , in a no-punches-pulled letter to Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation and colleagues at the International Bar Association, talks of "the prioritization of geoeconomic progress over the protection of vulnerable populations"- and quotes Bloomberg (the article - before its update today - appeared also in the Telegraph):
"China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, representing more than a third of global rice exports, curbed sales this year, and Indonesia says it may do the same. Investigators in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer, raided warehouses last month to crack down on hoarding. The World Bank in Washington says 33 nations from Mexico to Yemen may face "social unrest''..." (read in full).
Dr Apatow continues: "Experts now fear that impoverished populations may also be allowed die in the event of a pandemic, where the geopolitical objective is minimal interference with world trade and travel.
Since the Year 2000, we have watched the international community spiral into crisis, due to the prioritization of geoeconomic progress over the protection of vulnerable populations. ..." (Read letter in full)

Wednesday April 9 2008 ~ "With all our combined efforts we must be able to move the EU-tanker..."

Vaccination is a European issue. It's now high time for an urgent all out campaign to get the inappropriate but seemingly unbudgeable EU trade rules on vaccination changed. The end of cheap energy, the insidious creep of new viral and bacterial diseases, the depletion of the soil, the end of cheap imports - all could soon make the EU's obsession with trade and protectionism irrelevant. What matters now, more and more, is food security. The economic situation worldwide really will affect what countries such as Britain can import - and sooner rather than later. The "bottom-up" grass roots commitment and energy is inspiring. High time then that the urgency of the need for food security is acknowledged in the media and government.

Wednesday April 9 2008 ~ Argentina - empty shelves are the price of soaring energy and grain

Argentina is a fertile country - but at least a quarter of the Argentine population still lives in poverty - and food prices rose 40% last year caused by the effects of oil depletion. Increased export taxes prompted a farmers' strike - called off last week for 30 days in expectation of talks - but now Argentine farmers could revive the strike. It combats the soybean export tax being raised from 35% to 45% and new taxes being put on other farm exports, including wheat. The tax rises are to raise revenue but also, and this is a vital point, to discourage farmers from selling food overseas that is needed at home. The small farmers are naturally frustrated that their profits are being creamed off by a government that seems to give no benefits in return. Argentina's key grains exports are likely to be disrupted again and blockades resumed. As one reader on the BBC page explains, "Prices for basic commodities like dairy products, meat fruit and vegetables have gone up enormously in the recent months, as it is more profitable to export than to sell them in the country."

Wednesday April 9 2008 ~ The big exporters with political clout and pedigree breeders are often those who continue to raise powerful voices against vaccination

using the unscientific and misinformed perceived "problem" of subclinical carriers in vaccinated animals as justification. But as Intervet has rightly pointed out, where can this subclinical virus lurking in "carriers" go if the animals around it are protected? The most basic knowledge of virology shows this fear to be unfounded. As CLA Wales director, Julian Salmon, reports (icwales.icnetwork.co.uk) following a recent visit to Argentina, those who routinely and effectively vaccinate are baffled by Europe:
"They failed to understand the EU's archaic stance on vaccine."
The NBA petition calls for a common sense approach based on sound science for the use of vaccine to protect livestock. In France, the biggest animal breeders' organisation, ProNaturaFrance, has now put it on their own site .

Tuesday April 8 2008 ~ The production of money, not food, takes precedence every time for UK government - but without farming we all go hungry

Steve Dube in the Western Mail today says that competitors outside the EU have "few welfare or environmental strings attached" to the advantages of a global free market system. The European Commission's wish to link farm subsidies to environmental conditions could disadvantage European farming even more. Farming is not the only industry to suffer, he says ".... But it is the only industry where it really matters that it is so severely disadvantaged by unequal competition, for the simple reason that without it, we all go hungry. An added challenge facing farmers is that they are largely unrecognised at a UK Government level, where the production of money, not food, takes precedence every time." More

Monday April 7 2008 ~ Briefing day for everyone interested in setting up a Community Supported Agriculture project.

One example of how things are taking off locally (food feet rather than food miles) is a briefing day for everyone interested in setting up a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project.
The Soil Association has funded 3 experts; Jade Bashford, Mark Harrison and Nick Weir, to run the day for people interested in Community Supported Agriculture or "CSA" in Gloucestershire. It will be held on Wednesday April 30th at Stroud Community Agriculture, Hawkwood College, Stroud, in Gloucestershire (Painswick Old Road Stroud, GL6 7 - 01453 759 034 . Please see link to information and booking form (new window) The event is FREE and lunch and refreshments will be provided. Places are limited so booking is essential. For more information on the Soil Association's new Community Supported Agriculture project, contact Amanda Daniel on adaniel@soilassociation.org

Monday April 7 2008 ~ The crisis is global

Anyone who still thinks that the turmoil in financial markets isn't going to affect world growth should read today's Financial Times in which the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and former French Finance Minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, rubbishes the notion that the credit crisis is largely a US problem. Developing countries such as China and India would be affected.
"The crisis is global," he said. "... . use of public money can be examined....The forecasts we are going to release in a few days