F and M

[Mrs H]

This does seem to be rumbling on - and what with the blue tongue too Have any clubs - particularly those close to the affected areas - encountered any problems yet from the farming community regarding permissions etc - over and above the old shoe dipping?

[Knee Deep Mud!]

We've held two events in the last two weeks with the boundary of the surveillance area running along the road that formed the edge of the competition area. No restrictions from the landowner, even though they had closed all public access to the land they own on the other side of the road, which fell within the surveillance area. However we were very lucky to have managed to hold these events. Defra extended the surveillance zone yesterday to include the majority of the area we used for our events, and the landowner will undoubtedly have now closed access to it.

I know at least one other local club has cancelled an event as a direct result of F&M.

[Copepod]

The London Rat Race had 2 orienteering sections on Sunday, organised by SLOW - at Richmond Park, no-one was allowed off paths, while at Wimbledon Common there were no such restrictions.

[Adventure Racer]

In other sports, the 3 Peaks cyclo-cross race which was due to take place last weekend in Yorkshire got cancelled due to concerns from landowners. The London Rat Race this weekend also had restrictions in Richmond Park - we were only allowed to run on paths, and not go cross country, which was a real shame as some routes would have been better going off-track, giving good orienteers an advantage (unlike on Wimbledon Common, where off-track was all pretty green, along with a dense path network). Could be grateful that the event there was allowed to go ahead at all - and I'm sure the organisors were. OTOH, having checked the DEFRA map, it would seem that the whole of Richmond park falls outside even the outer surveillance zone, so more than 10km from any infected farm, and it would seem we didn't go in the surveillance zone at any point on the race. Therefore I'll simply put it down to pointless paranoia, particularly given it seems the deer were allowed on the paths as well as the off-track stuff we weren't allowed on. I'm guessing they maybe wanted not to let us in there at all, but that would have looked stupid with the park open, and shutting the park would have looked stupid and provoked outcry when it isn't in the zone!

Not sure if I now need to incinerate all my kit before I go out running near any animals round here, as I had Sky High in my car who had just been through the inner Protection Zone as her plane landed (from the map it looks like the terminals themselves are just outside the zone). Or is Mrs H going to ban me from MADO events in order to placate the landowners?

[Mrs H]

Well hardly as you're controlling the first one anyway

Just wondered if landowners were getting jumpy.

[J.Tullster]

Therefore I'll simply put it down to pointless paranoia

Pointless paranoia?!

I think not.

[Adventure Racer]

Pointless paranoia?!

I think not.

I can understand how farmers are concerned about F&M, but maybe you could explain to me how exactly there was a risk of Rat Racers spreading the disease in Richmond Park when they'd just come from Central London and Richmond Park itself is outside the outermost zone defined by DEFRA? That's as compared to all the members of the general public (or even a farmer who has had direct contact with animals) who might well have just come straight from one of the infected areas before wandering around for all they know.

[J.Tullster]

I'm not saying there was a particular risk involved with Rat Racers in Richmond park... But to call it "pointless paranoia" is dumb.

[Adventure Racer]

Was only referring to the particular decision that Rat Racers in RP was a risk. General worrying about people who have no direct contact with animals spreading the disease when there is no evidence of that as a transmission vector is slightly more reasonable paranoia.

[candyman]

The risk might be very small but the possible impact is huge so I wouldn't blame farmers at all for being 'paranoid'. Obviously the best remedy is education, the better the farmers understand the nature of the activity the less 'paranoid' they are going to be.