OFF: Re: Foot & Mouth

[Nick Medford]

In message <a05010403b6df684a93a4@[10.0.0.5]>, Carl Edlund Anderson
<cea at CARLAZ.COM> writes
>
>OK. So like with a bad case of flu, first the cow gets sick, then the
>cow gets better. Meanwhile, surely a slightly peaky cow is more
>useful than a dead one?

I discussed this with a friend of mine who's a vet i.e. he knows something
about it, unlike 99% of the people airing their opinions in the media. I
append some of his comments below:

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1. I suppose it's like a bad cold, if your bad colds give you inch-wide
ragged bleeding ulcers in your mouth and make your fingernails slough off -
bearing in mind that ungulates are supposed to stand on their fingernails.
Imagine your nailbeds were the size of a cow's and then you had to stand on
them for a month.

2. Although FMD doesn't kill, the animals get so fucked that 5-10% die of
super-infection.

3. Animals become *very* debilitated after getting FMD and when the
ministry say they lose their productivity, that is a bit of an understatement.
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So it would seem that this stuff about it being "like a bout of flu" is pretty
wide of the mark. That doesn't address all the points about vaccination, the
slowness of the official response etc.  but worth knowing I thought.

--
Nick Medford