Quick. Someone get the cows a good PR agency...

British bovines have had a bad year. First foot-and-mouth. Now bluetongue.

Their international image is clearly suffering too - a Slate article today asks: "Why are cows in Britain always getting weird diseases?"

The answer is complex but the article does make one reassuring point :

It's also possible that British cattle are simply the victims of bad publicity. Most European countries, as well as nations in Africa, Asia, and North America, have had confirmed cases of the three major livestock diseases—mad cow, foot and mouth, and bluetongue. But the United Kingdom happens to have one of the best systems in the world for reporting these outbreaks. Since the country was struck with a devastating BSE epidemic in 1968, British health officials have developed a surveillance network with a very high degree of transparency.

Good news in a way but probably not much consolation to British farmers and their long-suffering herds.

Alice Fishburn

Comments

[Simon Stephenson]

The devastating epidemic of 1967/68 was foot and mouth, not BSE. As stated in Slate's article.