letter of the week

letter of the week

Tough decisions need to be made

AS A CUMBRIAN living and working on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, let me tell environment minister Michael Meacher that the countryside is definitely not open for business (Travel Weekly March 26).

That may not be the message many want to hear but it’s the reality – until we face up to it, we can’t begin to sort out the problem.

Our nearest confirmed foot and mouth case is 50 miles away, yet every footpath and bridleway in the region has been closed for weeks and there are disinfectant mats on all roads across the moors.

I sympathise with the Cumbrian tourist industry but I dare not return to the Lakes for fear that I might bring the disease to the North Yorkshire Moors. Like theirs, our local tourist industry has been hit hard enough already.

Foot and mouth vaccines are available but areexpensive and must be administered every six months. Vaccinated animals can be carriers of the disease even though they show no symptoms themselves. The European Union (following strong pressure from the UK) banned the import of vaccinated animals and this is the prime reason for the present cull. If we don’t eradicate the disease we can’t export – but so what! The UK already imports more meat than it exports and the loss of revenue from meat exports is minuscule compared to the revenue generated by tourism.

If the Cumbrian hill flock is slaughtered, it is virtually irreplaceable. Not only would that effect the economy of the region it would also effect the landscape. Bracken would encroach from the fell, fields would turn to scrub and farm buildings would collapse. Who would want to visit then?

I can understand the arguments for ridding the country of foot and mouth disease but perhaps the price is too high. What happens when it comes again, as it surely will – do we than slaughter another 700,000 animals and ruin countless more lives and business’?

We have to decide which is worse – the possibility of foot and mouth becoming endemic in the national herd but controlled by vaccination, or mass bankruptcies and the loss of billions of pounds in tourist revenue. It’s not an easy choice, but someone eventually will have to find the courage to make it.

Phil Cornelium, managing director, Ryedale Travel, Helmsley, North Yorkshire

In the end it comes down to the price of food but if arable farmers can be paid subsidies to let their fields stand fallow, surely hill farmers can be subsidised as guardians of the landscape?

The disease effects cloven-hoofed animals to varying degrees. Blisters in the mouth and on the feet are debilitating to the animal and the disease reduces milk yields and hinders growth development. Older animals usually recover from the disease in a few weeks but it can prove fatal to younger animals. It is not harmful to humans.