[HPFGU-OTChatter] FMD

[Amanda Lewanski]

Catlady wrote:

> I heard a thing on the news about FMD in South America. IIRC, it said
> that South America has never been FMD-free, so Argentina and Brazil
> are
> not allowed to export fresh meat to North America or Europe, so Brazil
>
> divided itself into five districts, each of which strives to become
> FMD-free by an extensive vaccination campaign, which costs $1 per cow
> per year, and one of these districts had already, at the beginning of
> this year, petitioned to be recognized as FMD-free, and now the
> disaster
> in Britain and Europe is making them have second thoughts, such as
> that
> they might be wise to keep on their vaccination campaign forever.
>
> I am very confused about the above information -- it appears to
> contradict the information of the other 'experts' they interviewed,
> such
> as the one who said that vaccination is no good because a vaccinated
> cow
> is just as contagious as an infected cow, and the several who said
> that
> FMS spreading to wildlife is not only ineradicable, but will kill off
> important endangered species. Does anyone here have any facts?

Come Monday, I'll have Jan ask his boss about the vaccine. Perhaps
there's more than one type, like the "killed" vs. the "live" polio
vaccines. You could catch polio from the old "live" oral vaccine, if you
hadn't already been vaccinated. Perhaps once the population has all been
vaccinated, as in the human population with polio, the vaccination is
effective, but putting a vaccinated animal in with non-vaccinated is
disaster? Just speculating. I'll let you know when I find out anything.

--Amanda
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