Private Eye
01.04.06

DOWN ON THE FARM

1) In January agriculture minister Nick Brown was encouraging farmers to insure themselves against "possible outbreaks of foot and mouth disease".
(Times 9 January)

2) ...When it became clear the mass slaughter policy was failing all stops should have been pulled out to organise a mass vaccination programme for cattle, and allow sheep just to suffer a few days' discomfort from which the vast majority would recover.

When Dutchman John Warmerdam, who keeps sheep in Argyll, looked at the position on vaccine stocks what he discovered was far more alarming than anyone had yet realised.

Only four sites are permitted in Europe to make vaccines. These are in Holland, Germany, and two in Britain: the Animal Health Institute at Pirbright and a nearby lab owned by French company Merial. Only 5 million doses of the Merian strain are kept in stock, and these are normally kept in "half-product" state, needing several days to make useable.

To make more vaccine takes several weeks. Two million doses are held in Holland for the Dutch government and a further 1.25 million are held there by Intervet. But in an emergency these can be legally impounded by the Dutch government. The Germans hold 1.1 million doses while France has access to a million doses at their plant in Pirbright.

So the UK only has access to 200,000 doses at the Animal Health Institute. It could be allowed to use another 1 million doses but this is nothing like enough for the country's 11 million cattle. So if at this late stage vaccination was adopted it would take months to commission extra supplies. The decision should have been taken weeks ago at the start of the outbreak.

It is Mr Blair who must live with the consequences.

3) Whereas most farms are shut off to visitors this does not apply to those who are monitoring GM crop sites. Even in infected areas biotech staff will be able to travel to the ever growing number of farms involved in the trials, now up to 115, all over the country.

END

There is NO CopyRight on this document which is one of many 1,000s of items freely available on http://www.SilentMajority.co.UK [some 8Mbs.] & 10s of 1,000s of items on The SilentMajority CD [with over 40Mbs.] which contains the entire web site, 1,000s of apposite quotations, Articles, Speeches, ArtWork, & The FULL text of The EU Treaties, Several Related Books, The British Constitution, The American Constitution & Numerous related Items.
SilentMajority nor any associate thereof does NOT vouch for the veracity of the documents hosted on its site or CD nor any foreign language documents thereon & advises you consult your own solicitor on legal details as we do not accept liability for nor presume to give legal advice ourselves.
For a copy of the CD please mail payment of £20.00 for UK deliver or £25.00 for ALL other Countries payable to:
Greg Lance – Watkins,
Glance Back Books,
17 Upper Church Street,
CHEPSTOW,
NP16 5EX
Monmouthshire,
GREAT BRITAIN
For delivery of 2 x CDs
one for your own use and one for on selling or donation to an individual of influence (media, politician, activist etc.)

IF YOU wish to use the Material Above, which is freely provided
Please have the Courtesy to Print It out in its entirety from start to finish with NO alterations, as displayed.
To This Point