June 28, 2001
A mass screening programme is being set up for foot-and-mouth slaughter workers after three soldiers involved in the cull were diagnosed with the rare disease Q Fever.
The disease, which has flu-like symptoms, is not normally serious but the three soldiers have been treated in hospital. Screening for Q Fever is now being offered to all Army and civilian personnel - including vets, slaughtermen, farmers, their families and their staff - who have been in contact with animals on the farms concerned and who are suffering relevant symptoms.
The last serious outbreak of Q Fever in Britain was near Birmingham in 1989 when 147 people were affected. A total of 75 people caught the fever in England and Wales last year.
Foot-and-mouth disease has struck again in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales - more than two months after the last recorded infection.
There were fears last night that the fresh case could re-infect Wensleydale where farmers and businesses were just beginning to overcome the epidemic's devastating effects.
Slaughtermen culled stock in Bishopdale, just a few miles from Aysgarth, after the infection was confirmed yesterday.
Meanwhile, preparations are under way to bring more than 3,000 tonnes of ash from a Northumberland carcass pyre to Teesside for storage. The ash, from a burial site near Widdrington, will be transported in 15 sealed lorries, transferred to rail containers and taken to the Freightliner site at Wilton, near Redcar.
Last night, it was unclear how long the ash will be stored there. It will eventually be taken by rail to a mass landfill site thought to be in the South-East of England.
June 27, 2001
Up to 75 per cent of footpaths in the Northumberland National Park, closed to visitors to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, have been given the all-clear to re-open. Some local farmers say the action is too premature.
Meanwhile, a giant pile of ash from a foot-and-mouth burning site near Widdrington Village in Northumberland is now being cleared. The last carcasses were delivered to the Hemscott Hill site two months ago.
Workers wearing protective clothing will be damping down the ash. People living nearby fear the leftover ash could be blown on to residential areas and some are planning to leave the area until the operation is finished.
June 25, 2001
Farming leaders are concerned that an outbreak of foot-and-mouth discovered at the weekend could spread the disease down the Esk Valley and into the sheep on the North York moors.
Vets slaughtered 90 cattle and 400 sheep at Leaholm Lawns Farm at Houlsyke, near Danby, on Friday. There were preventative culls involving several hundred more animals at two nearby farms. It follows outbreaks at Ashes Farm, Ruswarp, near Whitby, and two more at Westerdale where hundreds of cattle and several thousand sheep and lambs have been slaughtered.
There have now been 86 cases in North Yorkshire.
June 22, 2001
The foot-and-mouth disease protection zone at Milfield in Northumberland has become the first in the North-East to be lifted.
Farms in the zone have been under restrictions since mid-April. Now those rules have been lifted after the Government relaxed movement restrictions yesterday in the first Government statement on the outbreak for seven weeks.
However, farmers living in the North-East fear the threat of foot-and-mouth is greater now than it was at the start of the outbreak. They have condemned Government plans to lift blanket bans on public rights of way within a month as 'absolute stupidity'.
Meanwhile the battle to close the controversial 240-acre Inkerman foot-and-mouth burial site at Tow Law, County Durham, has gone to Brussels. Euro MP Stephen Hughes has contacted a European commissioner demanding the closure of the site on health grounds.
Foot-and-mouth back on
the march
June 11, 2001
Farmers and hoteliers in the Cleveland Hills are waiting in fear as foot-and-mouth disease goes back on the march.
Another eight cases were confirmed in North Yorkshire over the weekend, leaving the agriculture and tourist industries on tenterhooks. Sheep on six farms in Westerdale were slaughtered after a case was confirmed at Waites House Farm on Friday night. And late on Sunday night, cattle on High House Farm, Westerdale, were found to be contaminated and were destroyed by Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) officials.
So far, Heartbeat country has escaped the worst - the nearest cases have been around Yarm and Stokesley. But Westerdale nestles in the Cleveland Hills, and farmers, hoteliers and those linked with the tourist trade in the area know that they are teetering on the brink.
Day-trippers are still making the pilgrimage to the village where the popular TV drama, Heartbeat, is filmed, but those who own holiday accommodation are already suffering.
A further five cases were confirmed in the Settle area of North Yorkshire, taking the total in that outbreak to 66. Another case of infection was discovered on Saturday at High Worsall, near Yarm, along with a case at Ingleby Cross, between Northallerton and Stokesley.
June 5, 2001
The Northumberland farmers accused of starting the foot-and-mouth epidemic are to be prosecuted over alleged breaches of animal health regulations, officials have confirmed.
Brothers Bobby and Ronnie Waugh are to face six charges brought by trading standards officers following an investigation into conditions at Burnside Farm, Heddon-on-the-Wall.
The farm was identified by the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) in February as the likely source of the outbreak, which has so far seen more than three million animals killed and rural businesses devastated.
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22-06-01
Protection zone lifted
11-06-01
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read on
Foot-and-mouth back on the march
Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Sue Kelly. TASTES OF. . .