The rapidly changing livestock disease scene takes some tracking.
The first paragraph of the article by Life Technologies Corporation, given the official position of state veterinarianism in Britain, is quite extraordinary.
Of course, midges played a part, but other vectors were brazenly ignored, but not in the opening paragraph of this article. Where are the, wind and geography defying, midges blamed for Britain's import of Bluetongue and Schmallenberg?
Spread is now down to the increased international trade in live animals, it seems.
We did not expect a change in attitude to come this suddenly!
The ambiguities and contradictions in the official story about Schmallenberg's arrival in Britain, were recorded, at the time, on my blog or sometimes here on uk.business.agriculture.
The writer was otherwise engaged when Bluetongue arrived in Britain, but a later trawl showed the same pattern of refusing information, published as normal in other countries, and murky contradictions. The inevitable "cold case" investigation will easily find those. They seem to be centred on the nature of the early cases.
Anyway, a very sensible article. Fast tests are essential to meet the gathering storm.
Cold Case review and DNA can clean up the historical record and allow for the proper treatment of the culprits.
"Blame someone else, preferably innocent" is at last being replaced by ethical veterinary science. But, it will take time, we don't really have, to complete the process of reform in Britain.
The article published on The Pig Site can be found in full here
Emerging Diseases
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
