A team is born......

On one of our regular visits to the Exeter morning meetings we were asked to stay behind.

There was a big problem in Devon.  The animals weren't being killed quickly enough.

I'll explain.

Foot and Mouth is a virus.  Once infected, animals produce 'virus' which spreads the disease.  The strain we had in Devon showed itself in cattle, and hid itself in sheep.  Pigs produced massive amounts of the virus and presented the biggest risk.

The cold, simple fact is that dead animals don't produce virus, and therefore can't spread the disease.  Once a farm is slaughtered, the only way the virus can  be passed on is via mechanical spread; i.e. on people or vehicles, or whatever.  The key fact is, dead animals don't create virus.

Therefore, it was vital that once found in a group of animals, they were killed as soon as possible.

Up until then, if a vet found Foot and Mouth, he or she became 'dirty'.  They stayed on the farm where they had found the disease, and oversaw the slaughter and disinfection of that holding.

Things were changing.

From now on, when a vet found FMD, he would report it as usual, and a 'Slaughter Team' would be sent in straight away to kill the stock.  The IP (infected premises) vet would then stay on farm to supervise the disinfection, and go 'clean' as soon as possible.

Slaughter Teams were to consist of a Slaughter Vet, Slaughter Charge-hand, Contract Slaughter man, and up to two 'Drovers' to assist.  They would basically be a 'flying squad' of killers.

I turned to Nigel,

"What do you reckon?"

"Well, it's not like we don't know how to do it.  Lets volunteer."

"OK, as long as we can have Tony..."

Nigels hand went up.  We were in.

As the first team to volunteer, I never really understood why we were named 'Team 13'.  "Unlucky for the cowboys" Nigel said.

I rang Tony and asked if he'd be prepared to work with us full time.  He was.

That left the problem of 'Drovers'. 

Up until then, we'd managed with the disinfection contractors at the one farm (that was really 5 or 6 farms) that we'd slaughtered.  Having to deal with new people wasn't something I was keen on.

"What about Drovers?" I asked Nigel.

"Stay there a minute" he said as he disappeared across the car park in hot pursuit of someone.

A few minutes passed, and Nigel came back with a huge man with hands like shovels.

"This is Jim.  He works for Genus, the AI people.  He'll work with us."

"Hello Jim.  Are you happy with this?"

"If Nigel says it's OK, then it's fine with me" he said.

"Good.  Got any mates here?  We need another man."

"Well, there is Mac, but he's on patrol."

"Give him a ring.  If he's up for it, I'll sort it."

Suddenly, we had a slaughter team.