The scenes in 2001 of funeral pyres of cows were barbaric. They clearly made bad TV from the government’s point of view. I am glad this new Prime Minister is determined to do better.

??When the outbreak in Surrey was first notified I and others said it was important to take strong measures at the outset so that thereafter the government could gradually relax once it was clear the outbreak had been contained. Strong measures included shutting all footpaths in the Exclusion zone, drawing the Exclusion zone wide enough to capture any likely infected farms, and taking enough preventative measures countrywide just in case.

??We now know their Exclusion Zone was too narrowly drawn, so they have had to increase it. They should today draw it much wider, to make try to make sure this is the last time they have to enlarge it. We know they did not close footpaths in the zone, but have now had to. They still have not notified farms of the need to take action like introducing disinfectant for people and vehicles arriving and leaving the farms.

??They are now beginning to be behind the possible spread of the disease, and are concentrating on killing cows once they are known to belong to an infected herd.

Shouldn’t they now be using the vaccines to protect uninfected herds? Wouldn’t that be a better course of action than waiting for a cow to catch the disease and then killing the whole herd just in case?

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