It is a story on the news about a farm or small holding in another news. Unless you are a farmer or are employed in the food industry the stories of & # 39; foot and mouth & # 39 ;, blue tongue & # 39 ;, avian flu or, now, swine Flu are something that may raise a passing interest. But, as it has done now, when the disease crosses county lines and farms not too far away have been reported as having pigs, cattle or sheep destroyed then it raises more than a passing interest.
With the latest outbreak of Swine Flu reaching the media it is worthwhile looking at some of the facts and fiction behind these diseases that are being passed from animals to the human population.
Neither had they told us in the past, while proclaiming our own meat sources were not safe, that in Europe over two million cattle and sheep had been destroyed because of this latest injury to hit our nation & # 39; s farms.
It is deadly virus that is carried by midges. It is expected to work with this particular disease, do they hope that the midges will have and stay in one area? It is believed that the cause carrying insects have been brought to the UK via from Africa and that it is still another by warming that have allowed them to increase and travel.
It affects cattle, sheep, goats, deer and other ruminants, but sheep are the most intolerable to it. A single bite from an infected midge usually results in death of the animal within just a few days of the first symptoms demonstrating. It causes mouth It can also cause lameness and breathing difficulties as well as internal bleeding and in the worst case it will cause the animal to die.
Infection in cows is usually symptom-less but they can not have them spreading to the other animals. The midges pick up the virus from biting an infected animal and the bug then multiplies inside the insect that passing on it it bites its next victim.
So far & # 39; blue tongue & # 39; has affected over 8,000 farms across Europe in under ten years and the midges usually only travel a mile or so a day it is believed that the disease reached Britain after a cloud of midges over the English Channel.
Those areas could have been up to 15 more times more and cover more than 90 miles. The biggest hope for farmers is for a cold winter to hit our countryside, as the virus can not survive in depth below 15c.
DEFRA say that it is an infectious disease affecting cloven hoof animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.
As we have already become aware this disease is devastating for the rural economy and our farms in particular. But it is serious for animal health and welfare it is not fatal to adult animals. It is debilitating and also causes a loss in areas such as milk production yield.
If it does not hit us it then hits us hard then there will be rules and again it is the farmers who will suffer but we can all play our part.
Please heed these words and do we have love and respect for our living so that we are on the afternoon of walking and visiting but awhile they signs may appear warning of footpath and access closures. your bit to protect our countryside and hopefully someone will tell us in clear and simple terms, what it is, what to do about it and should we really be panicking.
© David Rose-Massom April 09
