MAFF And NFU Lies

In an e-mail Professor Fred Brown, a British-born most eminent foot and mouth expert now working for the American government wrote:

"1. Infected animals can be distinguished from vaccinated animals by a simple test of their blood.

2. If a vaccinated animal becomes infected it can be identified by the test described in 1.

3. If the animals in 2. become infected and then become carrier animals it is extremely unlikely that they would pass on the virus to other animals. There is, as far as I know, just one reported case.

If it is decided to ring-vaccinate, this would reduce the virus load enormously. In addition it would be ludicrous to slaughter the vaccinated animals subsequently. All the rules about moving animals following vaccination are based on the information available before differential diagnostic test had been devised."

This information put the lie to the line taken by both MAFF and NFU that vaccine wouldn't work. MAFF has admitted it was offered a simple test which would have allowed them to verify foot and mouth on the spot in March. The test was turned down. The order was to slaughter. MAFF didn't want to know whether the animals it was killing were diseased or not.