Re: Foot & Mouth

["Heather Hamper" <hnhamper@hotmail.com>]

Whilst not wanting to underestimate the economic and emotional cost to those 
directly involved with the Foot & Mouth outbreak the picture being painted 
by some news channels in the US is very misleading.

The FMD outbreak is not country-wide.  The counties (states) which are most 
affected are Devon (south-west), Cumbria (north-east) and Dumfries & 
Galloway (Scottish borders).  There are other counties which have confirmed 
cases but the numbers are much smaller.  Most of the south-east of the UK is 
unaffected.  We are not running out of food or living a hand-to-mouth 
existence.

The spread of this highly contagious disease has been dramatically increased 
by the distance people are required to travel their animals to take them to 
slaughter these days.  The disease spread from Cumbria (source of initial 
outbreak) to Devon because a dealer and haulier bought infected sheep from 
this farm and took them to his farm in Devon and then distributed them 
around his various farms.  The majority of the confirmed cases can be 
connected in some way to the original case in Cumbria.  Those which cannot 
be linked are assumed to be airborne spread or human link.

Humans cannot get FMD and the risk to people visiting the UK is remote 
providing they do not go out of their way to visit restricted areas.  An 
American school-teacher was quoted as saying that you could only get FMD if 
you touched the hooves of the affected cow not its rump (yeah, a 
school-teacher, thats whats scary!).  Obviously the chances of getting to 
touch an affected animal even if that was your desire would be remote.

My nearest FMD case is 15 miles away but I still get out of bed every 
morning to go to work.  At work we have Red Devon cattle and sheep and take 
the necessary precatuions ie everyone has to spray the wheels of their 
vehicle and dip their feet on entering the premises but we are still working 
because business (and life) has to go on

I hope this clarifies the situation a bit although I can understand peoples 
quite natural fears about visiting the UK however we are not under siege and 
still welcome visitors!

Heather Hamper
UK

>From: Kristi Schaaf <iluvdez@yahoo.com>
>To: ridecamp@endurance.net
>Subject: RC:  FMD and travelling to the UK
>Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 13:04:43 -0700 (PDT)
>
> >I hope anyone considering a vacation to the UK will
>be >sensitive to the spread of diease and how such
>spread >is affecting the lives of the inhabitants.
> > sug
>
>I just recently cancelled my plans to go to Scotland
>in June to see a Ridecamp friend and ride a couple of
>endurance rides with her. The rides are cancelled, the
>land is closed to horses, and we'd have to spend the
>entire 10 days pretty much locked in her house. The
>anger I've felt dealing with the airline for a refund
>pales by 1,000 times in comparison to the sorrow I
>feel for the people and livestock of the UK. Susan's
>forwarded email sure gives us a glimpse of what life
>is like in the UK right now. Kristi
>
>=====
>He's not just a horse,
>he's a little bit of
>heaven on earth.
>
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