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Strategies & Market Trends : Foot and Mouth....How can we profit? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chummer who wrote (48)	3/27/2001 10:31:51 AM
From: chummer	Respond to of 75

British evasion Hoof-and-mouth scare prompts ranchers' call to keep army away By NOVA PIERSON -- Calgary Sun In their own battle to keep hoof-and-mouth disease off Alberta farms, ranchers near a Canadian Forces base demanded that British soldiers be banned from marching into Canada until the agricultural war is over. The call came after 166 British soldiers stepped onto the disinfectant welcome mat at the Calgary airport and had their footwear doused in yet more cleaning solution on CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat. "They shouldn't be allowed to come here, at least until they get (the disease) under control," said Bob Hale, who ranches about 100 km west of the army base. "The disease travels in the wind, vehicles and clothes. It's just like a wildfire -- once it gets started, it's hard to stop." There are no effective measures to stop travellers from bringing contraband material infected with hoof-and-mouth disease into Alberta, warns a government official. "We are at risk. We don't have sniffing dogs at the Edmonton or Calgary airports (to look for contraband) and we can't go through a travellers' luggage unless we are suspicious," said Larry Delver of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. "Once people go through the foot baths at the airports, they are gone. We just have to trust them." The strict army protocols -- which go above standards set by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency -- were shared yesterday with ranchers whose lands border the base, about 290 km southeast of Calgary. "I think some of the ranchers left with a better sense of comfort and others did not," said Canadian Forces Capt. Fernando Martins. "You're never going to be able to please everybody, but that wasn't our aim. It was to let them know what we were doing." Alberta farmers' fears the disease will spread to Wild Rose Country are well founded, said Brian Derbyshire, a professor with the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, one of the leading agricultural schools in North America. "The concerns are justified. It happened in Canada once before (in 1951) and it could easily happen again," he said. "The virus is so resistant and takes very little to infect an animal." The disease which has infected cattle in the United Kingdom causes sickness and weight loss. It is easily spread and can be carried by people on shoes, clothing or equipment. "If someone carried an infected pair of shoes back from Britain in their suitcase that were not disinfected the result could be disastrous," Derbyshire said. Hoof-and-mouth causes blisters in the mouth and hooves of afflicted animals and has led authorities to kill hundreds and thousands of sheep and cattle in the U.K.