If you listen to the news you can't help but hear the oppinion that the UK will be hit next. After all we are the "shoulder to shoulder" allies of the US.

I have just got back from that great place of communication excellence... the pub, and a guy there (a cattle farmer) put together a strong case (from pre trade centre attacks that some of the farming community believe that the foot and mouth virus was introduced deliberately as an act of terrorism.

Comments please !

Scoobyebye.

Hi m8 wouldnt bloody surprise me! round where i am its still rife! its been to varied to be a natural spread. they seem to wannt to hit economeys to affect our finances and the wests. and it seems be working. cheers Lee

I've heard similar claims from farmers where I live. Some say the way the disease has spread, it is as if someone was walking around infecting the animals from one farm to another. In some cases they cannot see how it could have spread naturally.
I know the farmers are raising a petition to force the government into a full enquiry. I suggest we all sign it and maybe, just maybe, we may find out the proper reasons behind this foot and mouth outbreak.

Having done some NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) warfare & defence training, the following cost breakdown makes me think that the UK needs to be on the lookout for biological weapons and even chemical weapons as well as the traditional bombs etc.

Cost to manufacture weapons to kill 1000 people:

Nuclear $5,000,000

Chemical $50

Biological $5

There was a warning about this in the New Scientist just after the Foot-and-Mouth outbreak. It said that a simple way to spread the disease would be to take a towel along to a farm, get a cow with a blistered tongue to lick it, then take the towel to another farm, etc. Even cheaper than $5, particularly if you get to use red diesel to travel around between the farms http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

F&M tracks match nearly 100% with wind directions + normal gestation periods. I.e. when the wind changed direction from a known infected farm, add to that the normal gestation period, then the farm in that wind track would also become a known infected farm in many cases.

No problem there.

However, there is mounting evidence (and this is backed up by evidence from previous events) that burning on pyres, although very good at destroying infected carcases, is also likely to loft infection into the air. If you track wind directions from the pyres, infection rates are possible (or so it appears) at 3 times normal infection radi. This is an initial look at the information, it has yet to be looked into fully.

As to the suggestion that it was introduced on purpose, well, yes, the initial case may have been, but normal infection via natural means was more likely to be responsible for the spread.

Cheers

Ian

I think if terrorists where looking to do this they would use Anthrax or something equally devastating. With FMD the land will be re-useable in a relatively short period of time. With Anthrax, spores are produced which can live in soil for 100 or more years. AFAIK, Anthrax also effects humans. After all, what did the cows ever do to Osama Bin Lid.

p.s. Did they organise the floods as well. Maybe there is something in this Islam stuff after all http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

Fast Bloke,

Be very careful. I know you meant it in jest, but you have to make the distinction between the terrorists and those people who are on this planet whose religion is Islam.

The sooner people realise that 'Islam' does not equal 'Terrorist', the better.

If you want to load a religious label onto these terrorists, you would be much closer with Wahhabism. Even saying that, not all Wahhabists are terrorists, but at least you are closer.

Cheers

Ian

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by IWatkins:
<B>F&M tracks match nearly 100% with wind directions + normal gestation periods. I.e. when the wind changed direction from a known infected farm, add to that the normal gestation period, then the farm in that wind track would also become a known infected farm in many cases.[/quote]

Ahhh, that will be the wind that blows from Northumberland to Cumbria (and then Devon!) http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

mb

Boomer,

Er, yes http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif

What I meant is local infections. I thought (haven't studied that bit much, not my area) that the regional hops have been mainly accounted for via auctions/live stock movements.

Anyway, certain F&M strains can live and remain infectious while airborne for quite some time.

There is currently a study into whether an F&M outbreak could be transported to the UK from areas where it is endemic purely by being carried those distances in air masses. The work is looking especially at dust storms which are very good at picking up just about everything nasty from ground levels and hoisting aloft for movement via air mass movements.

Cheers

Ian

Ian,

the regional hops were almost certainly caused by animal movements for sale or slaughter. This is one of the "side effects" of the Euro regulations about legal abattoirs, supermarket requirements and big business http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif .

Local infection is probably caused not only by the wind, but also by water (rivers). Note the follow-on cases that occurred downstream from Settle in Yorkshire!

Anyway, back to topic - FMD could easily have been "introduced" from some external source. The fact that it had such a big effect may not have been anticpated at the time - in much the same way as no-one could have predicted that the WTCs would collapse so easily.

It's a good job that the government is going to have a public enquiry about FMD - er, NOT!!!!

mb

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by IWatkins:
<B>Fast Bloke,

Be very careful....
[/quote]

Sorry Ian - I didn't make myself quite clear. You are correct, it was in jest, but it was more about getting God to do favours.

I wouldn't associate Islamic terrorists with Islam any more than I would associate the IRA and UVF with Christianity. They generally do not represent any of the real values of their chosen religion, but instead use small parts of the respective religions out of context to justify their own search for power and money.

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

mb http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

I also see today that the media are not trying to cause a chembio panic by saying 'Don't Panic' and then explaining at length what a chembio attack would be like. Jesus, the media can be idiots, BBC included.

Add to that the reports of panic buying of gas masks/noddy suits and it won't be long until the world has gone mad.

Mind you, what a lot of the people who are buying gas masks don't seem to understand is that most gas mask canisters you can buy on civvie street are training ones only or out of date 'proper ones'. I.e. might help in the gas of a CS gas attack but would be no good against many chemical/gas attacks or biological weapons. http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif

Cheers

Ian

Now, I'm not easily scaremungered by the media, but after the threats of chemical/biological attacks I thought I'd surf for gas masks just to see what's knocking about for Joe Pub these days.
Every site I visited were sold out of masks and chemical suits!

Means I'll have to stick to the trusted 3M dust mask from B&Q and my waterproof kagool I suppose.