A 16-year-old bullock who had been tested positive for bovine TB was given yesterday a lethal injection at the Skanda Vale Hindu community in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Welsh Assembly Government officials also removed a nine-month-old water buffalo for slaughter.
But still no final word on the source of the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey. Although the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs admitted that the
very likely source of infection is the Pirbright site where Merial Animal Health Ltd and the Institute for Animal Health are located.
Prime suspects, then, are government and commercial research laboratories which each have the foot and mouth virus. The Grumpy Vegan looks forward to reading reports on who is to be held responsible at either or both of these laboratories. Meanwhile, one positive development. DEFRA also announced a willingness to include vaccination in its plans to manage the disease.
Vaccination is used as a disease control measure if it is demonstrated that steps additional to slaughter policy may be required to eradicate the disease.
Foot and mouth and TB pale into comparison when the UN laments the global increase in new diseases caused in part by factory farming, as reported earlier today.
