FURTHER CRISIS MEETINGS HELD AS FOOT AND MOUTH
CRISIS ENTERS THIRD WEEK
NFU officials were today starting a further round
of daily crisis meetings with the Government as the industry enters the third
week of the foot and mouth disaster.
NFU President Ben Gill will be meeting Agriculture Minister Nick Brown to
discuss the grim progress of the disease.
And NFU Director General Richard Macdonald and Deputy Director General Ian
Gardiner will this afternoon talk to Government vets.
The NFU will press home farmers' concerns about aspects of the slaughter
programme and further highlight the continuing problems on animal welfare
caused by the restriction on movements.
The importance of slaughter taking place immediately after diagnosis and the
need for animals to be incinerated or removed for rendering as soon as possible
after slaughter will be top of the agenda.
NFU President Ben Gill said: "Farmers' emotions are running extremely high
at the moment. Where foot and mouth has been diagnosed it is nothing short of
agony seeing years of work disappearing before your eyes.
"And for those who have escaped so far, there is an excruciating wait to
see the progress of the disease, always wondering: 'Will it be my farm next?'
"Farmers need to see the slaughter programme carried out as quickly as
humanly possible and we will be talking to MAFF about what more can be done to
ensure this happens. We know extra vets have been brought in to speed up the
process, which is much needed."
He added: "There has been much talk today about whether the disease is
under control or not. This is just semantics. At the end of the day, what we
know all too well is that the situation is grim out there.
"We must all continue pulling out all the stops to eradicate this scourge
from our countryside."
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