Cow disease in NZ

[Splitpin]

150,000 To be killed ....some wont even be tested for the germ.
One herd ... due to be killed was 2-5 days away from having baby's ...W T F .
Some super brain on the radio today said "no country has ever fixed this with mass culling"

There is a vaccine ...look it up yourself ..I cant be bothered doing it again, but like the water (added chlorine) here in Christchurch, we take the cheap option .
Anyway....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMbXvn2RNI

[Charl]

Marty... good post.
I've been wanting to clear my head about this thing, because it's certainly Big and Ugly.
My take ends up mostly with another viewpoint:

There is no commercially available vaccine for M Bovis.
While I share your distaste for the TV coverage of the doe-eyed bobby calf being fondled by its heartbroken owner, this is far from what dairy farming is all about.

A million moos are “culled” annually as normal replacement. 150k being “slaughtered” is an economic problem, not a moral one. Farmers have been seen to kick bobby calves to death as it’s quicker than cutting their throats.

Farming is a business, and many farmers will do whatever they can get away with, to make a little more profit. Too many… the stupid, the short-sighted, and the greedy are as well represented as anywhere else.

I’ve run stock in my time. The farmer goss is that a southland farmer (who is known) thought vet fees were exorbitant (The Stupid part), and decided to import his own serum from China (The Short-sighted part). Quite why you are able to bypass Biosecurity in this way is something MPI will have to soul search about. So the first herd was infected.
Now it’s well-known that some farmers omit to register the odd calf, and flog them off for cash to duck tax (The greedy part). So the NAIT tracking system fails, and the disease is impossible to trace properly.

So kill the herds. We have only this one shot at fixing this, a world first if we do.

Farmers take note: do not do stupid, short-sighted and greedy things. Manage your farm sustainably. There is a Green backlash in all this, and you have unleashed an avalanche on yourselves. As ever, pity the innocent, but maybe this will prevent a future blind eye when all know something is amiss in the farming community.

[cowpatz]

Great post Charl. You hit the nail firmly on the head.

Then you get the completely irresponsible corporate blundering..........

Watch on youtube.com

[toprob]

I was going to post last night, but I'm glad I didn't -- Charl did it much better than I could! New Zealand is in danger of losing it's mythological status, not with a bang, but a whimper over time. I'm not a big fan of the dairy/beef industry, (I'm vaguely disturbed by the concept of milk from cows, although I do love cheese!) but the New Zealand economy still relies so much on it. Eventually we will end up just another market, having to take less for our exports just to keep going, but in the meantime we have to do all we can to preserve what we have. I was surprised when they were talking about an alternative to eradication, but in the end going 'all out' to eradicate was the proper NZ response. Maybe it won't work, if it does then we'll be the first -- it could happen.

I did see the news item last night on the McKenzie dairy venture, and it did seem to be a fait accompli -- how that can happen freaks me out. That the owner of the land can say that there won't be any detriment to the waterways is patently bullshit.

[Splitpin]

You guys are real word smith's .... excellent reading.

[Fozzer]

This is what devastated our Beef industry!....>>>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_sp ... phalopathy

"The BSE crisis led to the European Union banning exports of British beef with effect from March 1996; the ban lasted for 10 years before it was finally lifted on 1 May 2006".

I remember seeing in the news, every day, piles of dead Cattle, being burnt in open fields!

I see the concern of NZ Border control at airports and sea-ports prohibiting the import of many foodstuff, etc, by passengers and visitors.>>>

https://www.customs.govt.nz/

NZ is paranoid about infectious diseases being brought into the country via plants and food.!

What I watch on my TV each day...>>> http://www.cbsreality.tv/eu_2/shows.php ... r+security

Paul.