>> Our farm will be participating in a group farm tour in April, and we
will be posting warning signs that no person who has traveled to Great
Britain or Europe since Jan. 1, 2001, will be allowed to enter our
property. <<
I'm bugged with curiosity on this one. Whether they came into contact with
an infected animal is anybody's guess. They'd have to be questioned as to
whether or not they toured an affected British farm. Based on newspaper
reports, all farms in the affected areas are closed to visitors. There is
some rerouting of traffic around some of the affected areas. Some schools
within the affected areas have closed, to reduce the possibility of fomite
transmission, I would guess.
If someone did manage to by pass those safeguards and visit an affected
farm, by the time they returned to America, they would have washed their
hair and body several times. Their clothes would also have been washed,
etc. The pathogen is a virus, which are delicate critters. It doesn't take
much to kill them. The chances of one surviving the trip from the UK to
here, and surviving the bathing/showering/laundering process is nil.
Our government takes a very strict attitude regarding the smallest hint
that any of our livestock might be endangered by a disease coming into this
country. If there was any chance that a person returning from Britain could
infect our animals in the US, a government representative would greet each
plane coming from Britain, and have returning American passengers go
through a decontamination process.
Has any US farmer in the US received anything from the government, warning
them about allowing recent UK tourists onto their farm? I'd be interested
in hearing about it, if it has happened.
I realize this is a dreaded disease and it can wreak economic and
psychological havoc if any of our US farms are affected by it. But, please,
I beg all of you to please use a little discretion in reacting to the news
from the UK and other parts of Europe.
wrnk
d2
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