Here in the UK we are hearing that there are wild rumours circulating in the US and other countries about the conditions in Britain caused by the foot and mouth outbreak.Stories like it is unsafe to walk the streets because of the disease,if you eat the meat your hands and feet will drop off, and the whole place is closed down.People have been cancelling planned trips to the UK because of these untrue stories and fear of catching the disease. Are these stories believed or are people more sensible than that?. I know that the pictures of piles of dead animals is off-putting but as someone once said “If slaughter houses had windows everybody would turn vegetarian”.
All of the news reports I’ve heard seem to be making a special point of stating “Hoof and Mouth presents no health risks to human beings”. Given the sorts of things people, are capable of believing, however, I’m sure there’s some scare stories circulating. You gotta ask yourself - how much of that segment was planning a trip to the UK anyway, and do you really WANT them.
BSE; “Mad Cow Disease” should have people more nervous than Foot and Mouth Disease - at least from a health vs economic viewpoint. There are even restrictions on giving blood in the US if you’ve spent much time in countries where there have been cases.
Based on what I have seen on various travel message boards, yes, there are a number of people who are considering cancelling their vacations because of F&M. Despite the massive amount of news coverage, most of these people seem to have only the foggiest idea what it is (a lot of them have confused it with mad cow disease, believe humans can get it from drinking milk, etc.) I haven’t come across anybody who believed their hands and feet would drop off, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
While the media here haven’t reported inaccurate information, they do tend to take a the-sky-is-falling tone whenever a new disease comes along, which has fueled the paranoia.
http://hoshi.cic.sfu.ca/epix/topics/animal/f_m_d.htm
This site gives a quick overview of F&M. It’s a very serious problem but nobody is going to die from it(a lot of people will go broke however). It’s a global problem that has hit nearly every corner of the planet at one stage or another and is very different from BSE which is transferable to humans.
Hopefuly it will be undercontrol soon but unless you where planning to just walk around the British countryside for your entire holiday I would say that cancelling a trip is OTT.
Hey, I started a thread similar to this last night, so everything I’ve been hearing about Hoove and Mouth in the U.K. is exaggerated? I’m not surprised. My boss is in Ireland for a 2week vaction and was hearing that every time you enter a town, you have to sterilize your shoes with bleach. She left her sandals at home because of this. I haven’t heard anyhthing about people catching this disease and losing limbs, but I don’t doubt the rumor is there. Here in Colorado everyone got freaked out by a news story that claimed 3 people in a local hospital had an illness Related to mad cow disease and may have exposed others. This was very untrue. The illness was a rare brain-wasting condition (I cannot remember the name for the life of me) with symptoms similar to the human version of mad-cow disease, but by no means related. Just goes to show you that the media is more into getting your attention than giving you the facts.
There has just been a report on the BBC News about tourists going into a knitwear shop near Windsor Castle and asking if Foot and Mouth can be caught off new woolen garments on sale in the shop.I do not think the message is getting across!.
The current strain of foot & mouth has been spreading for some time around the world.
The virus has been designated type O, or Pan-Asian strain.
Our ministry of agriculture officials were warned of this particular strain at a meeting in Tokyo last year.
Currently it is raging away in China, Mongolia, Russia and Taiwan but what has caused most concern is that it has spread into South Korea which has been free of it for many decades and even Japan, despite its island status, has had an outbreak.
This particular strain is noted for its virulence, far greater than other strains and in that it has a similarity to the WWI influenza epidemic which was unusually infectious and virulent, even today experts still don’t understand what exactly made it so dangerous.
The most worrying thing is that this virus has already breached the defences of some countries wiht good animal husbandry practices, incuding South Africa whose outbreak was blamed on waste swill feed imported from somewhere in the far East.
The UK still managed to become infected despite the fact that swill is only rarely used over here.
The spread is mainly due to the fact that the symptoms of the disease were noticed only after the animals concerned were reported by transportation supervisory vets and when it was traced back to the originally infected farm some animals there were showing obvious signs and yet the farmer had still not reported it, a delay of well over a week, and possibly two.
Had the Ministry for Agriculture farms and food(MAFF) been informed earlier then there would have been a good chance of controlling it.
As for humans being infected, that sounds like a load of schoolkids winding each other up, especially the gross exaggeration.
Yes humans have been infected, I believe that someone that one report said a farm worker had died in the 1960’s but I haven’t seen that confirmed so that could just be tosh.The disease definately has a very hard time infecting humans and would not be regarded as a human health risk, or at least of such low liklihood as to be almost invisible, especially when other viral infections are taken into account.
There has been serious concern in Ireland where sheep have been moved from place to place, undocumented, so as to show up maximum stock levels when European farm inspectors arrive prior to awarding farming subsidies, this uncontrolled movement of stock presents Ireland with its most likely possible route of infection and Irish citizens may well find Garda patrols out and about carrying out roadblocks and inspections of heavy goods vehicles.
The media in the UK often portray Americans as poorly educated, gullible, far too wealthy, and possibly all in need of therapy, I tend to avoid such stupid publications like The Sun, Mirror, Star etc.
Even if just one American can be described in that manner, I can point to plenty of our own good selves who match that description in every way and often exceed it, prisons are full of them.