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Foot-and-mouth disease in Japan

I see foot and mouth has raised its ugly head again, this time in Japan.
(Note the fear-inducing picture of the  men in hazmat suits.)

I’m British, and have lived through at least 2 foot-and-mouth scares, but it was a chance remark in an old interview I was reading that alerted me to the possibility that it might all be a scam. Now I’m wondering what the hell is in this vaccine they’re giving them, and can I avoid buying and eating any and all such vaccinated beef?

How’s this for insanity: “According to the farm ministry, about 160,000 cows and pigs will receive vaccination. It is the first time that vaccinations have been given in Japan, but all the animals will be killed anyway.” Say what?
So they vaccinate them, then kill them. OK, perhaps it’s because the vaccination will stop the disease stone dead and prevent further infection while they slaughterers are doing their grisly work. However, in another article we read

Use of a vaccine would not completely prevent infections, but if an animal were infected, emission of the virus could be controlled to a certain degree. Since the spread of infections would slow down, the number of animals that would need to be slaughtered would decrease, thus buying more time.

And in yet another article, we read  that “buying more time” is a little inaccurate:

Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said Tuesday … domesticated animals should be destroyed, even if they are not confirmed to be infected, if they have had certain contact with infected animals, as once the virus spreads outside the prefecture it would be beyond the authorities’ control.

Heck, yeah, why stop at slaughtering only infected animals!
There has been some resistance amongst farmers, but it seems (according to the press) to be only about how much compensation they will get.

Only one article mentioned infringed property rights:

Slaughtering all livestock would affect the property rights of farmers, but under the Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law, no compensation is provided for preventive culling of livestock that are not infected. Accordingly, the government will consider revising the law.

Under pressure from outraged farmers, the government did in fact change course: Government to give full compensation for foot-and-mouth disease losses.

In none of the articles did I find any mention of what kind of disease this is, how serious it is and why such drastic action needs to be taken, action that will likely devastate hundreds of families and businesses. No satisfactory explanation has been given of why so many animals must be vaccinated, given that vaccination has not been carried out before, and that, according to the article above, the vaccination does not prevent the disease. On television, I just caught a minute of an interview with an “expert” who “explained” the reason the vaccinations must be given is to prevent or pre-empt bans on trade by the United Nations.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Foot-and-mouth threatens prize Miyazaki Wagyu cattle (telegraph.co.uk)
• Japan Stops Beef Exports in Possible Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Japan’s Beef Ban Hits Prime Eateries (online.wsj.com)
• Files reveal Britain’s secret biological weapons trials in second world war (guardian.co.uk)
• About Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (diseases-viruses.suite101.com)

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