National Pig Association
Regarding
Argentina's cover-up of FMD
Gary Burkholder <brkhldr@ikansas.com>

Dear Livestock Friends,

[COPY of an original post I made to the National Pig Association's website]

Since that time, a number of things have occurred in the South American countries who are absolutely intent to export their beef in order to gain hard currency. They have not only withheld information regarding their individual country's situations...but have also tried to pursuade countries in the EU and the United States and the Americas and the Far East , that their meat is, "without a doubt" (bite my tongue) "safe" from infection from FMD. Notwithstanding the fact that this has been covered up, one tends not to look at the world, as we "assume" everyone else is a "honest" as we are. Unfortunately, with respect to FMD, BSE, Scrapie, African Swine Fever, you name it ....that is not the case. (But show me the numbers of the actual cases) 

The most unfortunate aspect of all this , is that a heck of a lot of livestock has been disposed of unnecessarily. 

There has not been any "positive serotological" evidence of any outbreak. No confirmation. Nothing...Yes, thousands of animals have been destroyed.....livelihoods of thousands of people affected...but I demand the absolute information Pirbright's Lab is supposed to be able to provide.......Show me, Pirbright.! Even us U.S. producers have to live with yours and OIE's non-sense. Why hasn't your system, designed by your staff, worked?

Are you a puppet for the EU...or what else are you hiding from the world as a whole? Show us the Serotological Reports and Results or your tests, and Give us an explanation as to why SENASA, COSALFA, and PANAFTOSA haven't worked ...while the EU's System of Reporting has failed completely....is that why OIE is trying to recruit a new Director of Information Data Processing.....see www.oie.int.....post to fill this position?

You need to have a database that is accurate, accessible, and responds to a search for any disease....a reporter, a veterinarian's name, a date for a report, a named carrier and airway bill number, a date for a receipt of a sample, a sampler's name, a confirmation or a negation of said sample, a date of observance...serotological evidence, ......I could go on and on....BUT INSTEAD YOU HAVE A CLOSED SYSTEM ONLY ACCESSIBLE TO YOURSELVES.....YET YOU SEEM TO BE THE ALMIGHTY GODS TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT A PERSON'S LIFE WORK CAN BE DESTROYED IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS.

Sorry for the comment: "But Jesus, God Help us!"

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 20/3. Gary Burkholder. Since writing to this Forum last week, I have been doing some heavy duty research on the internet regarding Foot and Mouth worldwide, while monitoring the progress you are making in the U.K. Here is a brief synopsis of my findings:

1.There was a foot and mouth outbreak in Argentina last August 

2.There were animals infected in Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, also 

3.The Argentine organization SENASA maintained that they had the situation under control, as did President De La Rua, as did ther counterpart animal health organization in Brazil 

4.The IMF placed pressure on the Argentine government to sell beef to comply with Balance of Trade requirements for debt service to the IMF. (September thru November) 

5.The Argentine President went on trade missions to China to sell beef in September 

6.The press releases throughout this period continued to state that the situation was under control 

7.On or about Oct.27, U.S. Secy. of State Madeline Albright visited President de la Rua. who again maintained Argentina's beef was safe 

8.Upon her return to the United States, and during our Presidential elections, USDA APHIS conducted a Tripartite exercise with Canada and Mexico to test the efficacy of a Foot and Mouth outbreak in the Texas, Mexico area of the U.S.

9.Submissions of performance compliances were made again to the IMF, by Argentina, necessay to show efforts to Balance Trade for Argentina and to enable approval of further funding 

10.Bans were placed on imports of Argentine and Brazilian beef to the US, with further objections on the parts of government officials in these countries, objecting that these bans were in violation of Free Trade Agreements between the U.S. and their respective countries. Again, "they had no problem." 

11.A major meet packer in Buenos Aires filed bankruptcy in Nov. citing numerous reasons for their failure 

12.The IMF approved requests and provided $7 Billion to Argentina, (to stimulate their economy) in December.

13.Further press releases continued to state that their was no risk in Argentina's cattle herds, even though there were animals being destroyed

14.Press releases then acknowledged that Foot and Mouth was in Uruguay, Brazil and Argentins (Michal Soitsya - Buenos Airs Herald) 

15.Rumblings of a faltering Argentinian economy were surfacing in January and early February 

16.Apparently the Hilton organization has a 28,000 ton contract for Argentinian beef for the EU countries now in effect 

17.Your first breakouts occurred in February, there was no evidence of reporting of anything happening in South America according to the OIE in France 

18.Your John Scudamore reported to the OIE, as well as his counterpart in France, the positive test results in early March 

19.Only after these reports were made, did Argentina (SENASA)admit to any problem....(This was in the March 16, eddition of the Washington Post), a full admission of an effort to cover this up. 

20.Over the past weekend, there have also been reports of Foot and Mouth in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel 

21.Not being addressed is the fact that Argentinian beef is also supplied to their embassies throughout the world. 

22.Apparently China was compelled this past weekend to initiate a ban of meat from India this past week, also.

I have hard copy of this publicly available information. Most of this is availabe at www.buenosairesherald.com Click the Search button, type in SENASA....or ("respective country name") then "foot and mouth". If you want more, I can supply you the web addresses. 

This disease is insidious. It does not respect national or international borders, nor does it respect any government or trade or economic policy... but someone has really dropped the ball on monitoring what has been taking place. 

This problem has been known for a long time now... and no one done anything but try to cover it up. My respects to you folks....but, in my opinion, pointing fingers at yourselves is not going to help the situation... the reporting of outbreaks worldwide and lack of follow up by those in charge of monitoring trade and traffic of animals, meat and wool,and used farm equipment, should also be addressed. Hope this helps.

Gary Burkholder, e-mail: brkhldr@ikansas.com

This was my original...I have added more.....and can back up what it contains.

The Buenosaires Herald was down for over a week and a half...as the country's politics melted down over this .

 Vaccinations, based on Pirbright's work were made...millions of doses...all supposed to be A24....now they are re-vaccinating, but a person cannot find what Type vaccine is being used.

The Argentine economy has melted down....one source tells the world he U.S. Embassy in Argentina has been closed.

 For the sake of brevity with this post, I firmly believe there is something drastically wrong with what is going on in England right now ....no serotological confirmation...running about as fast as MAFF can....killing uninfected animals with no serotological evidence.....only visual appraisals by people told to do their jobs.....told by MAFF to "do your job.". 

Come on folks....jump up and down...raise cain...Stop the Madness. Ask Nick J. Knowles why his reporting system failed so miserably....why they need any more lab technicians that can't determine the difference between a postive or negative (Ireland, second case...negative from Pirbright one day...then positive the next....????? This is a "your deal"....I cannot do it by myself...but I really resent the fact that IAH has tried to influence its scare tactics all over the world...and misled the world public as to actual seriousness of any one disease outbreak....it makes me wonder just what they are all about?

Respectfully, to anyone involved with the production of the livestock they produce or benefit from,

Gary Burkholder

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