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Posted on 04/11/2008 9:39:49 AM PDT by stillafreemind
f 1 cow shows symptoms, the government plan is to shut down all exports and livestock movement..all. Herds would start to be quarantined. And finally, herds would start to be slaughtered. The government will come in and kill herds within a certain radius of miles. The cattle may be perfectly healthy, but they will not test them, they will slaughter them.
(Excerpt) Read more at associatedcontent.com ...
China wants to import more beef.
I don’t think you’re too far off. I sometimes think that the government wants us begging for every last think. And I think they want to take away our capabilities of taking care of ourselves.
“I do not get the reasoning behind this.”
First thing to check - who owns the land on the “mainland” to where the lab will sit.
If it is privately held, now, 99% chance it belongs to a Bush crony/contributor or the same for a congressman.
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The article talks about Plum Island not being able to handle what they want to do at the “new” lab. Well, yeah, what a great idea to drag the lab and hoof and mouth to Kansas or Georgia.
Because responsibility for the lab has been transferred from the USDA to Homeland Security.
The Keystone Cops and Tiny Car Clowns in “Homeland Security” know nothing about infectious diseases, FMD in particular, and they’re more concerned about saving money by not having to ship staff/materials/etc to/from Plum Island via helo or ferry than with the net:net results.
The lab is currently located on Plum Island, which is off the northeast coast of Long Island, NY.
This is what happens when you take issues away from people know know something about the subject and give them to the idiots in “law enforcement.” They don’t want to understand the issue, they just want to know who they can arrest.
The Bush Administration ran a simulated exercise (”Crimson Sky”) to model what would be the outcome of having to perform mass livestock exterminations. The exercise resulted in the National Guard having to shoot animals, quell riots and running out of ammunition in the process.
There was, of course, no mention made of the financial outcome to farmers and ranchers in this exercise. And there’s no mention made of the costs to the US consumer, either. That’s the way with these gooberment “law enforcement” idiots. They’re just looking for who to arrest.
So if an FMD outbreak happens, stock up on ammo quickly. There’s gonna be some “civil unrest” — and not among inner city people who just whine about when the government is going to serve them a hot meal. There’s going to be some feces hitting the fan blades, because the gooberment idiots are going to find out that country folks a) own guns, b) can shoot better than the gooberment flatfoots.
Nice post.
If one compares what the British did to the vast cattle herds in the UK back when Madcow was just starting out...to what they might do in the US...there might be some shocked farmers. If someone were to draw a 400 miles circle in Alabama and Mississippi, and order all cattle to be killed in the interest of a federal order....the locals wouldn’t stand for it...nor would they accept a cash distribution for each animal killed. You would be talking about an entire lifetime of livestock gone. The American public has no idea what the federal government is capable of...and if they knew...they’d be firing senators and congressmen in a hurry.
Serious question. How is having a lab on the “mainland” for FNM that much, if at all different from the CDC in Atlanta housing and working with the deadliest of the deadliest viruses on planet earth? There is clearly a chance that one or more could “get out”? Shouldn’t then the CDC labs for those viruses be put on some remote island?
There are more cattle in the US than there are people in the UK. (93 million cattle in the US vs. 60+ million UK citizens).
There are more hogs in the US than there are people in the UK - 65 million vs. the aforementioned 60+ million.
Then when you add in sheep, goats, etc — you end up with some huge numbers here in the US.
The value of the cattle market in the US today is over $74 billion per year. Dunno what the hog market is worth off the top of my head, but it is big too.
But what people don’t consider in these scenarios is the loss of tourism, hunting, fishing and other activities of high dollar value to rural areas. All travel of vehicles and people in rural areas must be restricted to clamp down on a FMD outbreak. In order to allow vehicles to pass into rural areas and know a priori that there would be no transmission, you’d have to pressure-wash vehicles, trucks, etc with a hot water and bleach solution.
In the end, the UK ended up killing over 10 million cattle and hogs and the rural economies were cratered.
Here in the US, it would be an even bigger impact, because we’d see the malfeasance and incompetence of the gooberment flatfoots in controlling the US/Canadian and US/Mexican border come to light — something that the UK could control much more effectively with their being an island. There is so much movement of cattle over the US/Canadian border that the US/Canadian border would have to be shut down and all cattle movements stopped. You’d see Canadian farmers/ranchers crater as well, since they’re tied at the hip with the US markets - we saw that pretty effectively during the BSE case (ie, “the cow that stole Christmas”).
IMO, there is subversive, concerted effort to destroy the final remnants of self-reliance in the American people. The purpose is to crush a cultural threat to the final socialization of the Government and make the people subservient to corporations for their food sources.
This goes hand and hand with the proposed USDA RFID tags on every cow, sheep, goat, pig, chicken, turkey and horse in the country.
Not overtly condoning anything um... illegal here, Now would be the time that canny and defiant farmers would start hiding some livestock away in the woods and in secret locations, and keep them off the books.
The feds want to upgrade the existing lab on Plum Island to Level 4 to study more animal diseases. The feds don’t think it’s worth the investment in Plum Island to make the upgrade. It would cost much more than building a new lab. Some people (probably most people) on Long Island don’t want a Level-4 lab on Plum Island BUT (get this), they want the feds to keep the existing lab and put money int it anyway because it is worn out. They don’t want to loose the federal money and jobs.
Yes.
The difference here is that it is infrequent for humans to see any symptoms. By the time FMD escapes and is noticed, it is a week to 10 days later — IF... IF you have a trained DVM to diagnose the symptoms by sight.
Because we have been FMD-free for so long, it would likely be even longer before we had a positive ID from a lab culturing and response. Since FMD travels on the wind, cars, people’s shoes, etc — it would have spread far and wide before first diagnosis - and likely it would have the opportunity to spread from coast to coast before positive ID.
The problem here is that the vast majority of people don’t know anything about ag any more, and they really have no appreciation for how their actions around something like FMD would cause ripple effects. Tell them that there is a direct consequence for them, their families, etc — and suddenly you have some attention and diligence.
Just try telling people that their travel is going to be restricted to prevent an animal disease outbreak — and see what level of co-operation you get in response.
I believe you’d see some farming communities posting local law enforcement and instantly deputized volunteers with arms on roadways to enforce checkpoints. That probably wasn’t put into the Crimson Sky simulation.
Ever heard of Ames Lab in Ames, Iowa? They have a lot worse stuff there than hoof and mouth. When I went to ISU, I knew a vet student who worked with Ebola on a regular basis.
She also kept a cow’s heart in a jar on her desk.
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