I don't suppose this will win me many friends but this thought occured to me earlier as I was shooting three pigs with PDNS :

 The pig industry is not subsidised unlike the dairy/beef/ sheep. The effects of the two pig diseases, PDNS/PMWS, have been decimating the rearing herds across the world for several years now. Average mortality in the UK herds peaked at around 15% with some horror stories of 40%. Mercifully these levels have declined to tolerable figures. On my own units the worst batch of fatteners I had suffered 16% mortality back in 2004, of those pigs affected I personally shot over 150 in a six week period, now we coast along accepting 3-4% with the occaisonal cull like this morning.

 My point is that with these conditions why is there no government intervention, no culling, no movement restrictions, in fact hardly any coverage of the problem outside the industry ? Many people saw the arrival of blue ear as a nail in the coffin for the UK pig industry back in the 80's. Maybe it was as the national herd has declined by nearly half since then and that is when I decided to stop keeping my own sows. However UK Pigs plc has survived as I 'm sure the ruminant sectors will, in time, come through the current problems, albeit leaner.

 I have great sympathy for the individuals directly affected by FMD and Bluetounge but struggle to differentiate between their disease problems and those in the pig industry.

Seems to me as an outsider looking in that the UK suffers a considerable number of serious disease outbreaks, for an "advanced" agricultural producer, compared to other similar countries.

Being an island, I would think the UK would be better protected against such diseases, however this doesnt seem to be the case.

Just an observation, thats all.

 TC
 

I have thought along the lines of Markw and Tas on this one.  My banker laid a copy of the Wall Street Journal in front of me yesterday at lunch and said that it was confident we will have 10 years of good prices.  I told him that was great, as long as we don't get F and M,bluetongue, any of that.  Seems for an island you end up with so many diseases so often.  Why I wonder?

Well how about no border controls,dense populations,of people and livestock and a fabulous world leading foot and mouth lab sat in the middle of it all.?

Lets not forget that blue tongue has only just got here,its been in calafornia ( sp ) and europe for years.

I have to think that the dense population of both animals and people has to have alot to do with it.  It takes 1800 acres of grass for me to run 400 head of cattle at the moment, they are much more spread out, which helps alot I imagine.  I also agree the lab is a disgrace. 

It could also be that the UK is far more vigilant in identifying animal diseases and much more open about publicising them. Remember, just about every carcase of animals dying on farm is collected by the National Fallen stock Scheme.

But I couldn't argue about lax border controls. It's a disgrace that large numbers of lorries filled with flowers and foliage arrive form the Netherlands each day. Even if any midges might be killed if the lorries are refrigerated, there are other diseases which could be transmitted. And what are the environmental consequenses?  Meanwhile I can't even burn a bit of bale net.

< /p>House of Commons; Madhouse run by the inmates, springs to mind. It,s got to change hasn,t it? Before it all falls down; or after?

All very interesting.

People may complain about the quarantine regulations when coming into Australia but I think we should feel very lucky that we have such strict procedures / regulations personally. 

 Australia and New Zealand have an enormous advantage in having one government each and a big span of water all around them.  How many govs make up the EU these days? -  and one of the worst things we did was build a chunnel.

Now we have given up independent island status we have to accept the consequences of international disease spread and act in accordance with the science of the 21 century, not the reaction on par with a medieval witch hunt.

Joyce 

Valid points about national biosecurity but nobody has addressed my point. Why do the fmd and bluetongue outbreaks cause government intervention and national media interest when similar problems in the pig industry have been overlooked by both for years ? I suspect that more pigs have been discreetly culled by farmers over the last five years than animals were slaughtered during the 2001 fmd outbreak . PDNS and PMWS are global problems but have recieved no coverage outside the agricultural press. I do not understand why.

 Would it be fair to say that beef & lamb consumption would be far greater than pork in the UK or not? If so, this may go some way to answering your question. Here the number of pork producers has fallen dramatically, for various reasons (cheap imports mostly) & beef and lamb consumption would far out weigh pork consumption (so would chicken I think).

Cheers,

TC

 

Not the case TC. I found this http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/statnot/qlymtpn.pdf  which details totals of dressed meat for consumption with levels of imports too. Basically pork and bacon roughly matches beef and lamb though nearly half of the bacon is imported. In terms of value I guess that the beef would be highest.

MarkW

I guess the number of pig units is so small,with such huge numbers on the ones that do still exist ,coupled with the fact that most are minimal disease units and are  therefore secure and remote, with no visitors wanted or welcome, would have a lot to do with it.

Although we always  had a few pigs 15 years back ( I have a white boar now if anyone wants one -cheap ! -from a pen of fatteners,last year ,he went lame when his time was due) I am ashamed to say that although I have heard of these diseases, I don't know anything about them .We are in an era of specialisation .
 

MarkW.

You have asked a difficult question re the response of the authorities as to pigs and cattle/sheep. Could it be something to do with the the number and status of people at the NFU who deal with pigs?

My guess is that specific expertises at the NFU and CLA are mirrored at DEFRA and that in all three organisation porkine issues have a low priority. They say not! But what do their budgets, career structures and staffing levels say?

There is a strong suspicion in my mind, that the staff in these three organisations form a triumvirate of expertise and opinion that is incestuous and, in recent years, has become divorced from, and antipathetic to, the interests of UK producers.

Hard for me to say since I don't know the structure of the UK pig industry, but if it is like ours it may have to do with prestige.  Over here, drug dealers are more respected than hog farmers, ever since the corporates came in with their 50000 sow outfits much of the countryside lives in fear that a huge hog farm will come in next to them.  Every pig farmer who wants to expand even in a tiny way is viewed with suspicion as to what his long term intentions may be.  As far as I can see, corporate hogs have not been good for anyone, especially the hog farmer. 15 years ago, I could market hogs within 30 miles of my farm 4 days a week at 3 different places, today I have to go in a feed company pool.  I can't even buy a hog feeder now without having it special ordered.  Cattle and sheep are still raised on numerous operations here, and aren't associated with "factory farming" no matter what you think about it, highly concentrated livestock operations are becoming more and more unpopular with the general population, right or wrong.  I can only guess at the reasons in the UK, but if the same situation was in place here with regard to disease(F and M vs the swine diseases Mark mentions) I think it would be because no one cared if the hog industry suffered major losses, except for a few stockholders in the major companies that now control the hog business. 

Markw,

I would have thought the obvious answer would be that FMD/BTV are notifiable diseases, with consequent movement restrictions etc. and PDNS/PMWS aren't.  As DEFRA have shown that in an emergency they are unable to contact their vast databases of farmers direct, the only means they have had to notify farmers of movement restrictions has been through TV, Radio and the national press so they have sought, and received, maximum publicity.

Once in the media view, such things depend upon their dramatic possibilities to remain in the spotlight.  With the vast scale and dramatic effects of the burning pyres etc from 2001 still fresh in the public mind, the FMD outbreak was inevitably very newsworthy.  With the, from news impact point of view, low numbers of farms affected and animals culled in this outbreak it would have disappeared from high billing in national news except that it is a) very close to London and b) the result of a leak from a Government establishment c) happened in the traditionally quiet news month of August.  Were it to have arisen from some other cause in Scotland, Wales or the further reaches of England in September with Northern Rock, Burma, Party Conferences etc to compete with, it would have received much less attention.

With there being no slaughter policy with BTV and it being up to individual farmers to deal with infected stock as they see fit, and with carcasses being disposed of through normal channels, I expect the disease will fade very much into the background of non-trade media.

Jacobus, you could have it with the point about notifiability. Odd though that swine fever is also notifiable but has presented far less problems than the two I keep mentioning. Does the list of notifiable diseases get reviewed or updated I wonder ? PDNS/PMWS were unheard of in this counrty prior to ,circa, 2000 but since then have been responsible for several million deaths and untold £ millions in lost production.

Mark,

 I can sympathise with where you're coming from.  As a goat keeper, we get no support (or indeed recognition), but get saddled with all the rules and effects fixed onto the cattle and sheep industries.  It is often very annoying to be subject to these strictures when no-one seem interested in researching the real susceptibility of our animals. A good example is the intereaction between rules on scrapie and F&M.  Goats appear to be generally less susceptible to both but have to follow the same rules.  As goats don't have a specific scrapie resistance gene (in evolutionary terms they probably don't need one) they have to follow almost impossible barriers when you want to import/export them, as a result very few do cross our border: it is nearly 10 years since any angora goats were imported.  The 2001 F&M outbreak culls lead to a halving of the number of angoras in the UK despite the fact that not a single angora tested positive (not sure about other breeds.)  Due to the scrapie rules we have been unable to really make up the loss of genetics.  Ironically an upsurge in world demand for mohair at a time when droughts have led to significant production losses in South Africa and Australia mean we could have really been in a winning position if we had not suffered such a setback.  So talk of losing export markets has as much to do with the lack of imagination both within the industry and in government despite all the hot air about diversification, etc.

Despite all that I have the greatest sympathy for those trapped in the protection zones, I pray a way out is found soon, but fear things are going to get very much more diffcult.

Mark

Asfar as i understand the situation if your pigs get FMD you will be treated yhe same as catlle or sheep farmers  ie all your stock will be destroyed and you will get compensation for the value of your stock

If my cows get BVD or Johnnes disease it is my problem just like your pig diseases