At 09:46 PM 3/1/01 -0500, you wrote:
>>> 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.
I'm not a sheep farmer (not even close), but honestly, I'd rather take the
"better be safe than sorry" approach and ban left and right instead of
watching a whole herd (and one's income) get sick and be slaughtered.
A virus actually is not as delicate as you might think. (Now I *do* know
what I'm talking about here, I've a masters in Food Science microbiology
and almost completed a PhD in Molecular Biosciences.) Viruses themselves
are technically not "alive" - unlike bacteria, yeast, etc. - so they can
last in a more or less inert phase until they reach the appropriate host
organism. In the case of foot&mouth, this stuff can travel very quickly
and survive a long time.
In the US, research on FM can only be conducted on Plum Island - a small
coastal island by NY (nearest Staten Island, I think). No research is
allowed to occur on the mainland for fear of transmission. Every day, the
good people who work on this take a ferry boat over, remove all jewelry,
change into lab clothes, and work. At the end of their day, they have to
shower before they can put on their outside clothes and leave. There are
airlocks, HEPA filters, etc. (I only know this b/c I heard it on NPR a few
days ago.) For more detailed info on how they are maintaining such a
delicate research facility, see
http://www.ars.usda.gov/plum/safety.htm
The long and the short - this is a HIGHLY contagious disease.
As far as the bathing/showering/laundering process, and I don't know if I
have lousy hygiene, but I don't wash my shoes. (I generally don't walk in
non-urban areas). Maybe they get rinsed off if I step in a puddle, or walk
in the rain, but that's about it. I also don't have my ourdoor heavy coats
cleaned more than once a year, unless I have a serious tomato sauce spill
or whatever.
I agree with Mary - better to ban and save her herd and career and life,
really.
-j.
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