This has been discussed briefly. Taken from the papers. Schools, hospitals caterers have been using meat from cows who have been infected by TB.
But chains of shops have not.
Rationale is that TB remains in the lungs, therefore meat is not affected. Minimum risk to health. I am not happy about this, if true.
has anyone heard about this.
heath63
------------- New Year: Hesketh Bank
Feb/March: Red Squirrel
March: lakes
June: Morecambe
Aug: Lake District(not camping camping)
October: Red Squirrel
As usual only time will tell as it seems impossible to try and avoid it in the food chain. For example, although Tecos's say they won't use it, the meat in pies, etc, might have come from these sources.
It does seem rather strange though. Meat is deemed safe to eat once treated and does not need to be labelled.
If it is so safe, and with no evidence that it will be transferred to humans.
Why all the big song and dance. The farmers have to go through hoops to have their cattle free from TB.
Cattle which are reactors are slaughtered, but still end up in the food chain. Farmers have to wait for further tests to make sure the herd is clear of TB, before resuming normality.
Wonder why the meat is able to go for human consumption once treated.
Doesn't make sense.
heath63
------------- New Year: Hesketh Bank
Feb/March: Red Squirrel
March: lakes
June: Morecambe
Aug: Lake District(not camping camping)
October: Red Squirrel
Quote: Originally posted by heath63 on 01/7/2013
Thanks Jax and Ki,
It does seem rather strange though. Meat is deemed safe to eat once treated and does not need to be labelled.
If it is so safe, and with no evidence that it will be transferred to humans.
Why all the big song and dance. The farmers have to go through hoops to have their cattle free from TB.
Cattle which are reactors are slaughtered, but still end up in the food chain. Farmers have to wait for further tests to make sure the herd is clear of TB, before resuming normality.
Wonder why the meat is able to go for human consumption once treated. Doesn't make sense.
heath63
Said on TV today that the TB usually is in the lungs and does not go into the meat or milk, so they are safe to consume. Plus, pasturisation and cooking would kill it anyway.
I agree though it doesn't explain why they slaughter reactors to TB or the drive to eradicate it.
It's not just about it being fit for human consumption though, it's the welfare of the cattle and the farmers. It is rare for bovine TB to be transferred to humans but it could happen. TB is a horrible disease.
Dairy cattle can be 10+ years old before they are no longer productive, if that cow had TB as a calf it would not be healthy and not productive, it would be ill and not have a good quality of life and as there's no treatment would need to be slaughtered anyway as farms aren't animal rescue centres for unproductive animals. British farmers care about the welfare of their animals and as such do not want their herd infected. My husband knows each of our cows, he's raised them from birth as we're a closed herd and we don't buy in any cattle.
We're currently waiting on post mortem test results for 4 cattle that were "inconclusive" and "reactors" when we tested several weeks ago. We've since had a "clear" test but future movements rest on these test results. Since we've been "shut down" we've not been able to move cattle except straight to the abattoir. We keep our female freisian calves but sell our male dairy calves and angus x calves in cattle market, we've got a backlog now that luckily as it's summer and most of our cattle are outside we've got space for, if it was winter the friesian bulls would probably have to have been shot as we'd have no where to keep them, can't afford to feed them and they're not worth a lot in market anyway.
Thanks for the insight Kate. From the above, do some return if they are sold on for meat. If not, seems unfair.
If I heard correctly from Country files, a while back. Is Ireland close to a vaccination?
Farmers as your selves struggling over costs, Your doing well by going on as you do. Defintley have a raw deal. Many times I have heated discussions with my OH over the payments which farmers receive.
I have worked on a dairy farm in Israel. Mega size. The herds were huge. Certainly was a production line, on a grand scale, over a 1000, I am going back 26 years ago.
It was so organised, worked like clockwork.
heath63
------------- New Year: Hesketh Bank
Feb/March: Red Squirrel
March: lakes
June: Morecambe
Aug: Lake District(not camping camping)
October: Red Squirrel
Thanks for the insight Kate. From the above, do you receive some return if they are sold on for meat. If not, seems unfair.
If I heard correctly from Country files, a while back. Is Ireland close to a vaccination?
Farmers as your selves struggling over costs, Your doing well by going on as you do. Defintley have a raw deal. Many times I have heated discussions with my OH over the payments which farmers receive.
I have worked on a dairy farm in Israel. Mega size. The herds were huge. Certainly was a production line, on a grand scale, over a 1000 head. I am going back 26 years ago.
It was so organised, worked like clockwork.
heath63
------------- New Year: Hesketh Bank
Feb/March: Red Squirrel
March: lakes
June: Morecambe
Aug: Lake District(not camping camping)
October: Red Squirrel
I don't think we'll see a better reply than the one above from Kate W. All I'd suggest to anyone who wants to be sure about the safety of the meat they buy is to buy meat farmed and slaughtered in Britain.
I was born and bred on a farm, after that I spent time on cattle trucks and have visited many farms, markets and slaughter houses over the years. When I watch farming, transport, marketing & slaughter methods all around the world on the internet & compare it to what I've seen here, believe me the Traditional British way of doing the job is head and shoulders above the rest.
IF it were possible, nothing which wasn''t produced in this country would find its way through my door. I'm confident enough in our agricultural industry to believe our Farmers and Growers wouldn't sell anything into the food chain which they wouldn't be happy to eat themselves & while it's down to te individual, that's good enough for me.
Farmers get compensation from the government for the culled cows, depending on the age, breed etc, as this will make a difference to how much they're worth for the meat. They then get paid for the meat. This while better than nothing doesn't compensate for the loss of say a young heifer that's got the next however many years of milk production and calves she'd produce. It wouldn't cover the cost of buying in replacements of the same age and condition and the loss of generations of breeding that's been put into building up a herd. OH would certainly prefer to have no TB. His cows are like family.
I'm not sure on the vaccination, I believe they're still quite some way off, it's something they've been working on for a long time.
Our herd's quite small, OH's outside with our son now milking the cows, we've got about 90 cows milking, about 200 altogether of all ages. It's more a way of life than a job, he's outside everyday from 5.30am till at least 7.30pm, a lot later when we've got fine weather. I have to make him have one holiday a year, last year due to the bad summer what was meant to be 9 nights in July in Limousin turned out to be 3 nights in October in Barnard Castle!
Not just meat either, British vegetables, eggs, milk, cheese, butter yoghurt (quite difficult to find, i get funny looks checking labels in the supermarket if my usual brand of yoghurt is out of stock, the majority seem to come from Belgium).
millercicm, I was wondering whether it was British. That was all. Not along the lines of buying British. That has already been done. That is all.
That's the thing with farming Kate, it is certainly a way of life; A lifestyle.
I enjoyed doing a stint, working in the cowshed. The cows where milked 3 times a day. I use to enjoy the early shift. I have forgotten what time it started, it was early; I use to enjoy watching the sunrise. (The best shift.) Not only that, use to separate the youngsters into there own genders. As well as, spotting cows in heat, for AI.
heath63
------------- New Year: Hesketh Bank
Feb/March: Red Squirrel
March: lakes
June: Morecambe
Aug: Lake District(not camping camping)
October: Red Squirrel
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: TB infected cows
