Monday, August 06, 2007

Plague, pestilence and floods - (well, foot and mouth and flooding, actually)

We gossip a lot in my (former) profession. Especially when there's a big story breaking and if you're an agricultural or animal health journalist, a foot and mouth outbreak IS a big story. We'll talk to practically anyone in the hope of turning up an interesting angle or a nugget of information that the rest of the pack has missed.

So I'm surely not the only reporter who heard tales fromlocal barstaff about completely flooded cellars last Saturday, 28th July. That's just about the right point on the putative timeline to make one wonder whether there might be a connection with the escape of the foot-and-mouth virus into the local environment.

Given that I'm not a scientist and I have only modest knowledge of the Pirbright biosecurity set-up, I don't know if that's a viable hypothesis or not.

And not being a journalist any longer, it's not even my job to go and find out. (and believe me that stings at a time like this!) Instead, I've handed over my pet theory to Animal Pharm's new editor, Jamie Day.

Having to carry on with business plans and budgets at a time like this seems particularly unfair. I'm reduced to checking my own publication's website just to stay up to date!

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