We've had another leaked story this morning on Bovine TB but this time it has come in from our journalist colleagues in Holland working on their farming daily Agrarisch Dagblad and it is more bad news. They are telling us that 27 Dutch farms are under cattle restrictions after calves with bovine tb were imported from the UK at the end of May.   Apparently, the calves were exported from a Uk farm that thought it was TB free but later found it wasn't and notified DEFRA immediately. If you can understand the Dutch language, and I can't, then you can pick up a lot more than me from a video interview Agrarisch Dagblad is running on its website right now.   I can just pick up the gist of the headline and caption and they seem to be talking about British veterinary controls being woefully inadequate. It's at moments like this when I wished I had made more effort to learn languages at school.  Inevitably, the Dutch livestock industry is up in arms as the country has been free from Bovine TB for at least 10 years.  So far, 4000 cows are being investigated and some have already been slaughtered.   The Dutch Beef Association is calling for an import ban and there is speculation that the Belgians will jump on the bandwagon too.This could not have come at a worst time for the UK livestock sector.  It puts all the focus back on to cattle to cattle transmission of the disease at a time when the pressure should be on culls of infected badgers in hotspot areas.  DEFRA must have known about this problem for at least six to seven weeks and has said nothing, presumably to try to protect the UK industry for as long as is possible.Our news team have understandably had reservations about putting this story up on our website until we had all the clear facts.   You can see a bald outline of the latest news on fwi.co.uk and more will be forthcoming shortly.   Once again, this has serious repercussions for animal health strategies not just in the Uk but right across Europe.    It makes me query whether a stand off between the Government and industry stakeholders continues to be a good idea following the no badger cull decision.   We need to work together to solve these crises and rebuild confidence - the current impasse helps no one.          

 

Sorry Jane I have to disagree, we cannot work with this government they are committed to the destruction of livestock farming not the elimination of disease. No cooperation until science and vet advice is restored.

He his-self:

No cooperation until science and vet advice is restored.

Got to agree with that.  It has been obvious all along that a badger cull was never on the cards, just years of time-wasting for nothing.  If the government think badgers are more important than cattle, let them eat badger.

Tricky this Jane and one can see that your natural instincts are to enjoin with others in solving the problem as it appears today. Like he-his-self I would counsel to hold fire for a few days and then decide whether it is possible to get this government to commit to action on badgers before cooperating.

Personally I think this throws the spotlight back on badgers, or at least it would if the very first thing the NFU says when interviewed by the BBC on this scare is that "the majority of the problem lies with badger to cattle transmission."  I should also be said that Hilary Benn gave his no-cull decision AFTER he was notified about TB in the British Herd sold to Holland.

The quid pro quo for cooperation with the government is the head of Hilary Benn!

Nothing less! Benn must go and it must be seen that he went because of his failure to order a Badger cull.

 

 

 

 

 

# re: UK exports at risk @ 15 July 2008 16:04

This will put a stop to the only outlet for British livestock to Europe.

This will also be extremely serious for the sheep industry as we were hoping to use the calf ferry to move loads of store sheep into Belgium, France and Holland.

I have had a party of Dutch slaughtermen at Ashford market today looking at finished lambs and trying to plan shipments on a weekly basis.

The costs although prohibitive of doing this appear to still leave the Dutch a margin.

The cost per truck is £2500 just for the 25 mile sea crossing!! (However with no calves going out the boat will not be viable and that will be the end of it.)

For instance the best lambs are £3.80 per kg. deadweight.

Best Texel x ewes around £75 - £85.

At least the beef price is a little better, but I doubt the economics of rearing too many Holstein bull calves that will now inevitably be shot.

Would it not make sense to take these to the Houses of Parliament and shoot them in front of it! Then the people can see the choice is between a Black and White Calf or a Black and White Badger!

well said h-h-s

for the first time in 6 years we have passed a testing date with no reactors or inconclusives

we have not lost a single animal - we cancelled the test

the courts have said defra have been ripping us off on valuations

11,000 badgers have been killed over the last 10 years, yet we kill 40,000 cattle a year - how crazy is that

look at the defra web site - some counties have 60% of badgers with tb, how long before the cattle population reaches these levels

DEFRA - when the cull is on - ring me for a test!

I think it has to be accepted that TB is getting to be out of control in England and that the London Government hasn't the political will to do anything much about it.The Scottish livestock industry lost millions last year due to the English FMD outbreak,which was caused entirely by DEFRA incompetence.It is surely time for the Scottish Government to ban all cattle movements from England until such time as the TB situation in England is resolved.If I was a Dutch farmer I'd be furious that live exports are allowed to mainland Europe from a country with the appalling track record on animal health which the UK has.Successive London governments stretching back to the election of Thatcher have had no interest in the prosperity of agriculture,and English livestock producers should question whether they should continue producing livestock in a country where the government obviously doesnt care whether their buisnesses survive or not.

I think it is time for the Scottish livestock industry to completely disassociate itself from the UK/GB tag,which is seen by our customers these days as nothing but trouble.Scottish farmers should be asking themselves what benefit the union with England is to their buisnesses.I am quite sure it is a liability to mine.

Jane,

I wrote a Blog the other week about the needless slaughter of Cattle because of TB. 

TB. Total Badgers or Total Bullocks http://www.fwi.co.uk/community/blogs/viewfromtheotherside/archive/2008/06/15/tb-total-badgers-or-total-bullocks.aspx

In it I asked "Do the badgers Suffer from TB or just carry it?"  I didn't know.  Sure enough FW magazine had a article answering the question.  Badgers Suffer From TB and become very sick. 

Surely there will have another myxomatosis with the TB in Badgers.  It will be a disaster for the Badgers if there is not a cull to eradicate the disease.  So the Badger Trust is burrying it's head in the sand and doing the Badgers a dis-service, allowing them to suffer!!!

I'm positive the public at large would back a cull if they knew it was in the interest of the Badgers species as a whole.

Let's push for a cull. For the Sake of the Badgers.

I'm afraid the only way we will get the press exposure that we need on this subject is to take drastic action.  We are a society built on free speech and its time the farming industry made use of this, the countryside march all those years ago showed us (the protesters) our strength and numbers but was held on a sunday to cause minimal disruption i think its time to revisit this plan method but with real intent, blockade the houses of parliament with TB infected animals and see how they like to be yards from a potentially deadly disease. 

 Its time to stand up for ourselves as an industry, nowhere else on earth would farmers put up with such appalling behaviour from their government. 

I think a blockade in Leeds would be a good place to start as this is Benns constituancy.  I'm in anyone else?