Foot and mouth

This saga continues to rumble. Cattle, culled at a farm near to the outbreak earlier this week at Egham near London, were found to be infected with F&M. Questions are being asked whether movement restrictions were lifted too soon, but this outbreak comes 4 or 5 weeks after the original one near Pirbright. The F&M virus can linger in the soil for weeks, it appears. In straw and hay it can stay on for 20 weeks. A tricky customer.

The farming industry is crying blue murder, this coming at the height of the livestock movement season. It's as well I haven't got anything to say on the matter, else I'd tell them to shut up. Not having movement restrictions would spread this disease nationwide in days or a few weeks, and millions of head of cattle and sheep would have to be culled, like what happened in 2001. Do we want scenes like these again? NO.