Foot & mouth seems to be back why cant the gov pay to inoculate to save our great british farmers livelyhoods.

Question

mark: good point but could we sell in uk or is meat unedible?

Answer 1

inoculation is not the way because it simply put,makes the animal less productive,and the animals do not thrive as well.farmers in the uk are well respected for the quality of the livestock and this is exported ,both in carcass form and s***n to improve bloodlines,all over the globe.the uk farmer is not,and hopefully never will be ,like some third world mob scratching the soil and ekking a living.farmers will survive and the best way for people to ensure that is to insist on only buying british.the public only pay lip service to this point because although they talk a good fight all they really want is a full belly for little money.quality costs,always has,always will.

Answer 2

Mark's point is in fact correct. But I think we should adopt the French approach to Foot and Mouth. The papers and news channels simply refuse to broadcast any foot and mouth events in their own country.

For example, March 2001 there was a mass episode of Foot and Mouth in France. The only coverage was actually in British Newspapers reporting on the UK problems which were only in 200 cattle at the time. The French then made a petition to their government to ban all UK imports. They succeeded in devaluing out Beef market yet again. Even though theirs was considerably more affected.

Every time there is an outbreak in France it is near or around Mayenne. Foot and Mouth as such is not dangerous to humans, the meat as proven by countries like Korea is still edible, so what's the problem?

On another note, as was tested in New Zealand when they inoculated, the disease actually mutated to a point where it was significantly transportable. My father has been a farmer for some 70 years now and has not once had an outbreak of foot and mouth, as a result of excellent animal husbandry.

As a further post script to my book length reply...

Foot and Mouth in the UK is a disease by compensated by DEFRA. Doesn't mean much, but when you think that people are actually paying to have their herds infected with foot and mouth  when an outbreak occurs, it's worrying. Reason is the herd is worth 10 times more through compensation schemes and insurance.

Answer 3

The meat is edible but it lowers yield - both milk and beef (by about 20% I think). That's why others don't want it.

Answer 4

Because they don't want to save us is why! They haven't got rid of TB(which costs the taxpayer millions each year and is getting worse) because they tackle everything backwards-they test for TB then cull.Why someone can't think to attack what causes TB in the 1st place is beyond me.I wouldn't be surprised if F&M turns out like TB in this country.

As for inoculation-it is not what we should do.I don't think the gov would pay for it for starters.It would add extra workload to farmers and would leave us at a disadvantage as who wants to buy F&M infected meat?Oh wait the British already do but no one else!

Ironic how Scotland (under cattle movement restrictions) is further away from Surrey than France and yet the french are ok.Government is too busy paying immigrants and gypo's ''benefits'' to worry about us minority!

How come i have seen no proof on the TV of F&M?-maybe DEFRA haven't heard of camcorders.Something dodgy going on methinks!

Answer 5

Perhaps if better care were taken of the animals these problems would not be occuring in the first place.  

There should be random checks carried out regularly on the conditions the animals are being kept in and how they are treated and the quality of their feed.

Answer 6

I think there are different strains of it, and inoculation is expensive, so you have to make sure you're inoculating against the strain that's going about.

Answer 7

We should give gov money to farmers at all.  We don't give handouts to other businesses when their in trouble so why should farmers get any.

Answer 8

Very good question. But with regard to your first answer, I would add, why can't the government do more to prevent foot and mouth in the first place?

Seems like this latest outbreak came from a lab experimenting with this virus, I feel it should have been more secure.

British farmers seem to get a raw deal most of the time, and this is the last thing they want on the agenda.

Money should go to making these labs secure and safe for both the workers and the public. I feel sure the cost of this would be far less than paying out compensation to farmers who loose out in these situations.

Answer 9

As soon as you innoculate, you aren't allowed to export to the EU - the reasoning behind this is:  If you need to innoculate then you have a problem, and if you have a problem we don't want your meat.  That's why we don't innoculate.