peta problems (was re: SC - Florilegium -Furs and OT)n

[Michael Newton]

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Peters, Rise J." <rise.peters at spiegelmcd.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 2:02 PM
Subject: RE: peta problems (was re: SC - Florilegium -Furs and OT)


> But FMD vaccine is not like a polio vaccine, a one-time life-long matter;
it
> has to be given annually, targeted to one of the specific subtypes, and it
> doesn't actually prevent the animals from catching and spreading the
> disease, just from developing symptoms.

Some small corrections, but in the main, Rise is right.
the FMD is given every 6 mo. to be effected and it has to get the type
correct. There are 3 types native to Europe, 1 from Asia, and 3 native to
Africa. Furthermore, since the needle will pass the virus if one animal
already has the disease, a new needle must be used for each one. Cows
brought up in each area are resistant to the native virus, but the HMD
sweeping the EU is from Asia, hence the panic. the US is worried because we
haven't had any of the disease since 1927 so absolutely none of our
livestock is immune.
According to the procedure we discussed at work, when an outbreak of HMD
occurs, the gov. agency in charge (in the US case this would be APHIS, the
group Jadwiga found the FAQ from) would quarantine and slaughter the local
area animals and quarantine and vaccinate the animals in a zone around the
slaughter area.
the Problem is the insidious nature of the virus. The reason that Britian is
having such a problem, and ending up killing so many cows is the virus keeps
escaping the quarantine zones.
here, let me try and explain another way.
Dr. Joe, who is the vet in charge of the night shift, is orginally from
Czechoslovakia, before the fall of the Soviets. When he was a vet over
there, they used to make the FMD vaccine by injecting it under the skin of
yough calfs's tongues and then weaken the serum after the blisters formed.
This was done under severe quarantine conditions in a cow house used only
for that purpose, yet an outbreak of HMD was found about 20 miles away.
During the invesagation, it was found that flies had flown from one cow
house to another, and infected the cows. This is how impossible it can be to
contain.

Ras is right in a sense, it is about money, but not to drive up the price of
meat on purpose.Rather, we're trying to save livestock and livilihoods with
a half effective weapon. The vaccine prevents the disease from causing the
animal harm, but causes confusion because the anti-bodies can't be told from
those caused by the disease itself. The virus can be carried miles unseen
before contamination of livestock. The livestock which catch the virus
cannot eat and cannot walk (which occasionaly leds to death by dehydration).
It is a major pain in the ass, and is not a conspiracy created by
governments on behalf of the packing plants. They, that is the packing
plants, don't want to pay any higher cattle prices than anyone else.

Well, from the USDA's FAQ on Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine,
> > it looks like
> > a vet cannot give the order to vaccinate, it has to come from the
> > government.
> >
> > See the FAQ here at:
> > http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/pubs/fsfmdvac.html
> >
This is a very good web site, and well worth reading on the subject.


Beatrix of Tanet