| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| lassemista |
Bluetongue vaccineHow are other keepers of small numbers of susceptible animals dealing with this. I just have the 2 goats, one due to kid 22/6. As I understand it they need 1ml each, then the same again a month later. Any kids need doing at a month old. The bottles hold 20mls, which needs to be used within 8 hrs of opening. Wasting 18mls on 3 separate occasions, would be wrong when it is likely to be in short supply, as well as expensive, no doubt.The vets are ringing up clients as they have part bottles, but I am 45 mins each way from the vet, and may well be at work. Anyone any bright ideas? Andrea. |
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| Nick |
Same boat. I'm buddying up with my neighbour. | ||||
| milkmaid |
i,m in scotland no vac yet till next year,although will be looked at
watching midges i'm getting bitten and praying |
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| Rob R |
We had our oldest cow covered in midges this week, sprayed her with the blowfly repel we use on the sheep & ever since have been groomng the dead bodies off her back. 
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| VSS |
Vets are making lists of who's got what, and how many, and will allocate the stuff as soon as its available in the area. Just tell vet your situation, and they should match you up with someone to share a bottle with. | ||||
| bodger |
Thanks to Nick, I currently don't have any stock to worry about. I'm keeping an eye on things to see how they go but I may well consider possibly not having cattle or sheep ever again. It will be dependant upon how things pan out with Blue tongue in the future.
But what choice have people got if you are into the 'farming way of life' ? What choices have you got ? Currently pigs aren't worth keeping and it was only a couple of years ago that the Bird Flu outbreaks sent the poultry keepers running for the hills. There's a post on here from way back when, where I panicked and got rid of my fairly large flock of laying ducks because I hadn't got the facillities to keep them indoors 24/7 if the bird flu restrictions were put in place. Its a real nightmare for people. 
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| Rob R |
Disease doesn't worry me, people's response to it is more concerning.
We panic more at the governments response to disease, rather than the disease itself these days  They seem convinced that containment & sterilisation is the best way to deal with it all  The public panic-buy (or not buy, depending on the 'scare'), according to what the idiot press whip up. And a lot of the pig price problems is a result of people having too many & panicking when the cost of feeding them went up, so they sell ever cheaper to get rid, just compounding the problem even more. 
Disease isn't going to wipe humans out, but the stampede of fear possibly might. |
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| tahir |
I agree. Disease has always happened always will. |
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| colour it green |
well, the vax has hit our area and my sheep have been duly stabbed... I mean vaccinated. | ||||
| tahir |
We haven't had ours yet, better ring the vet | ||||
| Rob R |
I got a card this morning in the post that said 100% of animals must be vaccinated
No mention of why they've messed about releasing it until after everyone has turned out
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| mihto |
The idea is that by vaccinating 80 % of susceptible animals one can actually eradicate the disease. Do they recommend vaccination of cattle? | ||||
| Rob R |
Cattle, sheep, goats, deer and camelids.
The idea is sound, the problem is that if it is that important, why make it optional? 
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| mihto |
I suppose (hope) that Derfra know what they are doing. Maybe a forced vaccination would have to be paid by the state while each farmer now pays the bill? Saves the government a nice bit of money. Do I read the numbers right that 130 seropositive animals have been detected since September 2007? Mostly during the period of zero vector activity? Have you had any clinical cases yet? |
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| Rob R |
That you would hope, yes, experience says perhaps not though. The fact that they've sent this card to an address at which I no longer keep animals suggests they're not too complicit with saving money. Although I guess they can save an awful lot of money not spent on vaccines to send out badly worded reminders though to people who still can't get a supply of the vaccine.
As for the figures, I don't know, where did you get those from? |
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| mihto |
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/latest/index.htm This has been one of my favourite webpages lately. Not much action, though  
We are waiting with bated breath on this side of the ocean. If bluetongue hits Scotland the gnats may get airborne. The new word is "Air plancton". It is, as you may say about bird flu, a case of Duck and Cover. |
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| Rob R |
I've read that page three times today, each one completely missing the figures  
The knee-jerk reactions are usually more to be feared than the actual diseases. I wonder how much the vaccination programme will get in the way of identifying any natural immunity. Collectively our livestock seems increasingly susceptible to various diseases with multiple serovars, how far we can take the cover & protect approach remains to be seen. |
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| VSS |
£.s.d |
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| Rob R |
Quite. I'd be much happier had they cut back on the patronising claptrap too, though. |
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| mihto |
For the uninitiated: what is £.s.d ?
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| Rob R |
Money, in the UK pre-decimalisation, pounds, shillings & pence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd |
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| mihto |
I see. Thank you. Live and learn!
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| dpack |
i am somewhat between hard core darwinism to give immunity in a few generations and vacinnate them all like smallpox in humans | ||||
| lassemista |
In the end the vet came and did it cos my heavily pregnant goat managed to rip her eyelid and it needed stitching. She couldn't be sedated because of her condition - I really felt for her having a needle so close to her eye 
She showed me how to give the injection properly, so that was useful. But it still wasted most of a bottle such a shame when there is supposed to be a shortage. The vet said goats only need one dose, but everything I have read said 2 doses like cows. Going to look at intervet when I have time, but does anyone know about the reasoning. Do goats immune systems work differently form sheep?
Also I was told to do kids at a month old, but the English Goat Breeder magazine, was suggesting that earlier would be better - it is just not tested on younger animals. It's not tested for goats anyway. Any thoughts? Andrea. |