crufts dog show

[auggie]

crufts dog show on Animal Planet TV march 9-11 9pm E/T
don't forget to mark your calendar for the greatest dog show

[Pam]

I am not familiar with that show, but have marked my calendar anyway. Thank you !

[auggie]

The Crufts dog show is in Birmingham,UK
This year dogs from all over Europe will compete for the Best in show.In addition of the show, they have many competitions like Agility, Flyball, Obedience, Herding. And my favorite event "dancing with Border Collies

[carrie]

Cruft's has been cancelled to try and prevent the spread of Foot and Mouth disease in the UK. We now have 33 confirmed cases of this terrible disease in our farms and many large events are being cancelled.

[raynie]

Carrie, could you tell me what foot and mouth disease is? It sounds serious if events are being cancelled. On a similiar topic, i was wondering about the outbreak of madcow disease there in the UK. How serious is it? Like, do some people choose to take their chances and still eat alot of meat or is it majorly affecting everyones daily life? I've seen the news talk about the disease itself and about the cattle but i haven't really seen much on how its affecting the general population.

[carrie]

Foot and Mouth is a viral disease that affects cloven hoofed animals - cows, sheep and goats. It is highly infectious and has an incubation period of 10-14 days. It can be spread by almost anything! On car and truck tyres, clothing, hair, fur, body fluids, straw, hay, feedstuffs, skin, boots and shoes...etc. It is also airborne - if the farm next to you has it and the wind is blowing your way then you are likely to be the next outbreak.
Classic signs of the disease are lesions around the nose and mouth that weep and cause pain and lesions around the top of the hoof and between the two toes that cause lameness. A high fever and loss of condition and weight follow. It is not always fatal but as it is so infectious all cloven hooved animals that are in any contact with the virus are likely to become ill and of no commercial value. There is also a great deal of suffering for infected animals.
As soon as a case is confirmed all sheep, pigs, cows and goats on that establishment must be slaughtered, the carcasses burned on site and the remains buried.
BSE has had a terrible effect on the farming industry. Our Government insisted for years that there was no risk to humans, sadly there are many CJD victims that would argue this. The BSE situation is, finally, under control and no beef over 30 months is allowed to enter the food chain.

[wolflady]

Yikes, we've seen this on the news as well. I've been wondering how one goes to stop outbreaks like this? Do you know what caused it?? We have a dear friend in Darlington, so we get to keep up on the England news! I hope everything is ok!!!!

[carrie]

Sadly, very sadly, everything is not OK. In Scotland alone there is another 40 - 50 farms awaiting test results tonight. Two hundred and fifty thousand animals have now been slaughtered and burned in the British Isles. Northern Ireland has it's first ever case of Foot and Mouth and the farm is only just over two miles from the border with the Republic of Ireland. That is going to be a miracle if no cases in Southern Ireland appear.
It is generally accepted that the efforts to stop the spread have failed.
We won't be considered clear of the disease until at least fourteen days after the last confirmed case comes to light.....at the moment that seems a very long and painful way off.

[raynie]

it sounds like it spreads like distemper does, i hope they can come up with a vaccine for it. gosh, it sounds like that Edgar Allen Poe short story about a plague, (i cant think of the name at this moment. thanks for the info, i'll be thinking of you.

[carrie]

Foot and Mouth is the most infectious disease known in the animal world.
France has slaughtered more animals than Britain has in an attempt to prevent the disease spreading to continental Europe.
We have 40 confirmed cases now and around 90 farms in isolation as they have animals that are suspect or have had possible contact with the infection. The countryside is totally shut. Thank you all for your interest and concern - lambing and calving time is on us and to see newborns in such terrible circumatances is heartbreaking.
(A point of interest - the USA last had an outbreak of the disease in 1929).

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Carrie, do they not have a vaccine to prevent this from happening? Those poor farmers, it must be heartbreaking losing their animals in this way. If they do have to slaughter their herd, what about their dogs, cats and other pets? Our sympathies are with all of you in Europe in your fight against this dreaded disease.
Jackie

[carrie]

Thank you.
Yes there is a vaccine. The problem with with the whole situation is that the only way to confirm the disease is to recognise the symptoms and then confirm the symptoms by a blood test. As soon as there is an outbreak you can test healthy animals that have been vaccinated and get the same result as that produced by an infected animal. The test relies on the presence of antibodies to the disease being present in the blood to prove that the animal has come into contact with Foot and Mouth. When an animal is vaccinated, the vaccine replicates exposure to the disease and antibodies to it are produced. These antibodies will then fight any Foot and Mouth virus that enters the animals body thus giving immunity.
Such is the threat of Foot and Mouth that any animal tested that has antibodies to it is then too much of a risk - has the vaccination worked or is it infected?
On the whole animals are not tested unless clinical signs of the disease are apparent and as you can see any other testing would condemn not only infected animals but those protected with the vaccine also.
In Holland the Dutch authorities decided to test a recent batch of sheep imported from England. Antibodies were found and it was just too risky to wait and see if the disease developed or if they were a vaccinated flock and they were all slaughtered.
British scientists have stated that it would take an unlimited budget and five years research to develop a more effective vaccine, that could be detected during an outbreak, to the point of manufacture. As the world's scientists struggle with funding for Aids, cancer, MS, autism....etc, etc. this is a dream that is never going to be realised.
When you take into consideration that the area around Powys, in Wales, has more head of sheep than any other European country (if you think England looks tiny on the map, have a look at Wales and then imagine a small portion of that country!) you can begin to imagine the devastation this disease has the potential to wreck.
Dogs, cats, horses and all other pets and livestock are unable to contract the disease but the potential to spread it is enormous. If you have Foot and Mouth on your farm your cloven hoofed animals ( cows, pigs, sheep and goats) are lost. A five mile exclusion zone is put into effect (no human, traffic or animal movement unless approved and essential is allowed). You and your family and all animals left on the farm are stranded until at least ten days after the last confirmed case is reported. All workers that have been on your farm are not allowed to resume work on any farm until ten days after the last case is confirmed.

During the BSE crisis, as bad as it got, people were still saying, "At least it's not Foot and Mouth."
This is the 12th day since the first case was confirmed.

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Carrie, it is so hard to believe the devestation this can cause. I can understand if the cattle have the antibodies and they test them there is no way to tell whether they are infected or they have the antibodies. When so much is at stake, it looks like someone would come up with an answer since it destroys the life of the farmer and his family and spreads so quickly. I do hope the States come up with something to help those poor people restock their herd or whatever one can do. Thanks for the information you have provided, I may be isolated, but haven't read anything in our paper. Hopefully this will end and soon.
I didn't know about the Foot and Mouth here in 1929, I'm pretty old but even that was before my time. Ha!
Jackie

[carrie]

We had eight new cases confirmed yesterday and already one new case this morning in Cornwall. (It's 9am)

[Karen]

It is heartbreaking to even consider the impact of this disease on the animals, the people, their livelihoods, and even the economy of farming regions. You, Carrie, have kept us more up-to-date than major news/media outlets here, though I am sure it is awful, simply awful for you. Thank you for keeping us informed, we hope there is soon a day with no new cases to report.