Think the elites are not trying to destroy our food sources? Wake up!!




http://www.capitalpress.com/main.asp?Se ... M=45896.78
7/11/2008 6:00:00

Cattle must be slaughtered

This week, federal officials announced they are going to slaughter more than 4,800 dairy cattle in Fresno County in California after they were infected with bovine tuberculosis. Another 16,000 cattle more have been quarantined and could remain so for years.Three dairies have been targeted around Fresno and Tulare: According to the media, three herds in San Joaquin Valley have been identified with the herd sizes of about 1,000 to 14,000 head. Using 2002 figures of what the federal government will pay as a maximum if the animals are all destroyed, it will cost $59.7 million.

For California's $7.3 billion dairy industry, that is a small price to pay to protect the health of their other herds and people - and also the reputation of the No. 1 dairy state in the nation.The news must be devastating to the owner and workers at the dairy. It is tough to watch so many animals removed at once and know their fate.

The $3000 per animal payment is also far from the true value of a lot of these cattle. For example, one of the herds has invested 50 years into genetic development, according to an Associated Press story, and sells semen and embryos nationally and internationally.The dairy producers probably wonder how to recover from that.

California's cattle herds, free from TB since 2005, will now face more restrictions and testing to move cattle across state lines. Already a pair of dairy bulls in Idaho are being investigated for TB after being brought from California where they were exposed to TB.

Bovine TB is a contagious disease between animals, but also can be spread from livestock to humans. According to APHIS, at the turn of the century bovine TB was the biggest cause of livestock losses, more than the rest of diseases put together. A very aggressive eradication program helped eliminate most of the problem but unfortunately cases still arise. In the California case, one of the theories is that diseased cattle might have originated in Mexico.

It takes years for symptoms to sometimes appear after an animal is infected, and these California cases may open up even larger investigations that could greatly impact the dairy industry.

While a lot of questions remain about where the disease originated this time, what will happen with the destroyed or quarantined animals, how will farms be compensated, can a better formula be developed to compensate dairy producers, and even how do these producers bounce back from this tragedy as they search to replace lost genetics, there is one thing that is clear.

Federal officials must be tough. Unfortunately, herds that have been infected must be eradicated, even with a multi-million dollar price tag. Politics cannot interfere with science: While politically this may seem horrific in image and too expensive for taxpayers to swallow, it is critical that eradicating this disease be handled promptly and to the fullest extent before it becomes a bigger disaster of staggering proportions