slaughtering animals is no way to stop disease
TRANSCRIPT
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FOR livestock farmers in the UK, these are
worrying times. With the country still not
clear of its latest brush with foot and mouth
disease, they are now facing uncertainty over
an outbreak of bluetongue, a midge-borne
virus that invaded northern Europe last year
and has now reached the UK. Is there worse
to come? More importantly, how will the
authorities deal with these and future
outbreaks? Can we expect pyres of burning
carcasses like those that traumatised farmers
and the public during the 2001 foot and
mouth epidemic in the UK?
The first thing to note is that animal
diseases are bound to spread sooner or later.
There are several reasons for this. One,
intensive animal agriculture is a disaster
waiting to happen. Close-quarter conditions
make it easy for infections to spread – witness
the emergence of H5N1 flu in battery chickens
in China . Also, the globalised economy means
that people, animals and food travel far more
widely than before, and they bring their
pathogens with them. To make matters worse,
global warming is allowing diseases to
flourish in areas they previously could not.
The arrival of bluetongue in the UK
is a perfect example. It is carried by the
ubiquitous little midge, and until now the
only thing keeping it out of temperate lands
was the midge’s inability to survive the
winter freeze. Recently, however, the winters
have been relatively warm and the midges
have been living on. Bluetongue has been
creeping up into Mediterranean Europe from
Africa since the 1990s. In 2006, a strain
arrived in northern Europe that had come
straight from sub-Saharan Africa. It broke
out again this year, meaning it survived the
winter. It was only a matter of time before an
infected midge – or a truckload of them on a
cross-channel ferry – turned up in the UK. No
wonder farmers are worrying: bluetongue is
far more lethal to livestock than the foot and
mouth virus.
The crucial question is, what is being done?
A vaccine exists, but only one plant in Europe
is making it, and it may not be ready in time to
stop bluetongue wreaking havoc next spring
or summer. If it is ready, under current UK
policy at-risk animals will first be vaccinated
to stop the virus spreading then later
destroyed. This is because the antibodies the
vaccines produce make it impossible to tell
a vaccinated animal from an infected one.
The pyres will return but the virus, which can
travel 300 kilometres in one wind-blown
midge, could well live on.
Clearly this is no longer a satisfactory way
of dealing with animal diseases. It may have
worked in the 1950s, when there were fewer
opportunities for bugs to spread, but today
it is like trying to kill a plague of mosquitoes
with a fly swatter.
What is the answer? Simple: routine
vaccination. Modern “marker” vaccines exist
that allow scientists to distinguish between
animals that are vaccinated and animals with
the disease. The Italians are already using
one for bird flu. Encouragingly, the European
Commission is recommending much broader
use of vaccination as part of the new animal
health strategy it is proposing.
Of course vaccinating and monitoring
will cost money, but that is the price of meat
production in the modern world – that is, if
you don’t want the countryside blotted by
smoke from burning pyres. ●
IS IT safe to use Tasers to restrain people? The
debate has been growing as more and more
police forces have started using the electro-
stun weapon. The latest research appears to
show that while tasering does increase heart
and breathing rates, it has few if any long-term
effects (see page 6). End of story? Not at all.
Whether a weapon is safe to use is not the
only question police officers should be asking.
Just as relevant is whether it is appropriate or
necessary. A Taser causes severe pain and
muscle contractions, and temporary paralysis.
Using it is unquestionably a violent act.
Granted, it can save lives: where it is used
in place of lethal force, for example, or to
prevent someone committing suicide. But a
guarantee that it is safe should not be a ticket
for police to use it indiscriminately. Like all
tools of violence, it should remain a weapon
of last resort. ●
Police must show restraint when using Tasers
Slaughter is no answerWe haven’t yet used the best way to stop the spread of animal diseases
www.newscientist.com 29 September 2007 | NewScientist | 3
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