Defra has announced the completion of all testing within the Foot and Mouth Disease Surveillance Zone in Surrey, which means all remaining movement restrictions are to be lifted from tomorrow - including those in Scotland.
The Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead, was in a celebratory mood, saying “Scotland’s livestock industry can now get back to business as usual and the business it does best - providing high quality produce at home and abroad. It is a challenging time but the Scottish Government will give the industry all the support it can in the weeks and months ahead.”
Defra officials were also very upbeat on the news this evening, but I have to confess to a sense of unease.
It all comes back to the survivability of the virus - Professor Brian Spratt’s report for the government puts it at 28 days in soil, 50 days in water, 20 weeks in hay and straw, and six months in slurry.
The last confirmed foot-and-mouth case in Surrey occurred on 7 August - 32 days ago.
I’m not surprised the wider restrictions have been lifted, particularly in Scotland and Wales as well as parts of England that are very distant from Surrey, but I do wonder if they should have kept the surveillance zone and some localised movement restrictions in place for longer.
Of course, it actually comes down to the economic imperative as Mr Lochhead’s statement makes clear, but only time will tell if the right decision has been made.
I just hope nothing happens between now and midday Tuesday so I take our pig to slaughter so we can restock the freezer.
I couldn’t agree more.
We didn’t even step down our biosecurity measures after the August outbreak because we were were so under-confident that things really were ‘back to normal’ as we were (so wrongly, as it turns out) assured. We really do have to be so careful: Tony commutes regularly to Heathrow - which is within the Zone; plus as ex Military Officers with a pretty thorough knowledge of the spread of various ‘nasties’ we’ve used our knowledge wisely - & are still being extra-cautious, restriccting access to the Ffarm & insisting that all vehicles, footwear etc are still sprayed, dipped etc.
As you say, the survivability of the virus is a major concern & I really cannot see we can be complacent until at least another 6 months have passed. We too are taking a couple of pigs to slaughter next week; & are gravely concerned that something will scupper our plans in the meantime as these girls are getting BIG.
I can appreciate that mainstream, large-scale commercial farmers are frustrated to be losing money in sales, especially exports etc; but if they were hit by FMD so many would simply take the compensation, wait, & restock; but we couldn’t afford to do that, & our little dairy would go out of business - not to mention the agony of losing a herd of animals you’ve lovingly reared & of whom you know each & every one by name.
Patience is a virtue, after all…..I just wish some of these ‘informed’ Ministers would exercise a little before any further lasting damage is inflicted on our beautiful countryside.
I posted more recently on FMD and its effects for us when we were on the verge of collecting our new sow. We did get her here and she’s settling in, but we have weaners due to leave the croft on November 10. That means there continues to be an air of uncertainty about the croft.
Once they’ve gone, we’ll have a couple of months free of pig movements and then we can relax for a short while.
[...] the movement restrictions were lifted last time, we acted quickly to get our pig to slaughter and only just made it as a new outbreak of [...]