[Jacob-list] Returning From England

[Pavel]

I got an email from a non-sheep-raising friend who just returned from a
trip to England. I wrote back and asked if they were asked about
visiting farms in England when they got back to the USA, as we are very
worried about our sheep getting caught in an FMD outbreak. She
responded:


"Yes Farmer Jones, they also delighted in spraying our shoes and
stealing
our Scottish toffee, (we discovered the perfectly shaped, deceptively
empty
toffee box later when we unpacked, ostensibly because there might be
milk in it? tsk, as in mad
cow...)

They also took our boiled, processed can of Haggis, (did I tell you
that?)
which i didn't mind. We had tons of Cadbury Milk chocolate which they
didn't
touch. Go figure.

They didn't spray everybody tho, just us "suspicious" people.
Mark's family in England own a farm. They are very F&M conscious. Their
farm has not been hit. Their farm
was a block down the road from where we stayed, we visited it and
stepped in disinfectant
coming and going.

You'd have to really go deeply rural to find the F&M out break, and they
are
burning thousands of perfectly healthy livestock just in case...
So you shouldn't worry, unless someone deliberately is sneaking it into
the
country i doubt it will pass over. I can see someone getting it in here
to be a terrorist tho.

I can see why you'd be concerned about F&M, if you could see how broken
hearted the farmers are in England..but again, they have a much more
personal Govt. that actually gets on the case immediately, as this
affects
tourism GREATLY, half the farms are also B&B's, and they, and all their
employees will be utterly sunk if this keeps up. They are B&B's because
no one can afford to
only farm anymore."

It's good to hear that the US is watching at points of entry, but I'd
still recommend against a trip to Europe until this clears up.

Paul Intihar
Rainbow Farm
Joppa, Maryland
Website: http://members.home.net/rbfarm/