Brown visits disease-hit Dales

24 May 2001



Brown visits disease-hit Dales

By FWi staff

AGRICULTURE minister Nick Brown is travelling to the Yorkshire Dales in a bid to tackle claims that he has ignored foot-and-mouth outbreaks in the area.

Farmers in the area claim theyre being overlooked, and complain about confusion in the way the figures for the disease are being published.

Nineteen cases of foot-and-mouth have been confirmed in North Yorkshire in the last fortnight, most in the “Settle rectangle” area of the North Yorkshire Dales.

On a visit on Thursday (24 May) the Minister will meet with farmers representatives and officials fighting to eradicate the latest outbreak.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Farming Today programme, Mr Brown said his visit showed that he had not forgotten the Dales.

And he dismissed out of hand claims that figures were being concealed to make the outbreak seem less bad than it actually was.

“Thats complete nonsense. Were not trying to conceal information. What we can properly put in the public domain we do.”

Stressing that disease control was not being stood down elsewhere, Mr Brown said 40 extra vets had been assigned to the Dales.

He insisted that the outbreak was not out of control, but admitted that there were factors which were not fully known.

“The uncertainties in this are you dont know where the next case is going to emerge, and you dont know how much of it has spread.

He added that epidemiologists “are not magicians” and that their predictions range from single to double figures.

“Frankly it depends on how much of the disease has been spread locally before it was discovered,” said Mr Brown.

Contiguous culls have taken place on around 100 farms in the Settle area, with 75,000 animals slaughtered.

Farm e-Business Survey. Click here to enter and win 100 Amazon vouchers