OT: French cows dying from EMR

[Jim K..]

Is there a EU compensation scheme afoot here?

[Andrew]

From the DT today -

"A group of French cattle farmers is suing the state over the mysterious death of hundreds of cows, which they believe are the victims of harmful electromagnetic fields.

Local vets are at a loss to explain the deaths.

Stéphane Le Béchec, 51, a Breton farmer in Allneuc, has lost 200 cows who died of unknown causes in the past three years and is closing his business.

He has identified several potentially harmful sources, including a transformer, mobile transmission towers and wind farms whose electric currents he says blight his land. ?I noted that the voltmetre reacted strongly when I stuck it in the ground or in water,? he told Le Parisien.`"

Perhaps the cows have developed VoltFoot-in-mouth disease ?.

[Tim+]

Hmm, quadrupeds are very susceptible to death by electrocution if there?s a damaged ?leaking? underground power cable.

Tim

[Tim+]

Maybe...

Tim

[Andrew]

elsewhere in the article -

"The local agricultural chamber referred him to a geobiologist who noted that the water on his property carried a high amount of electricity, potentially linked to a neighbour?s photovoltaic station."

So the french have discovered how to dissolve electricity in water.

[Chris Hogg]

Nah. They were run over by the mobile transmission towers rampaging around the fields.

[Marland]

No, was that a separate incident from the well publicised one at Newbury .

GH

[Chris Hogg]

How else would they link to a photovoltaic station if not potentially?

[Tim Streater]

It's Voltemort.

[Tim Streater]

Yes - remember those dobbins that died at Newmarket from exactly that?

[Vir Campestris]

Or perhaps it's BSE, and they don't want to admit it.

Andy

[Tim Streater]

No, you're right, it was Newbury (I used to live near Newmarket).

[Marland]

Thought maybe it was a simple error with both starting with New ,

I expect one of our resident sparks can quote chapter and verse but I understand that because of the susceptibility of Quadropeds to electricity the electric regulations covering cattle sheds, stables etc are more stringent In someways than in domestic homes with RCD devices having much lower tripping values and potential differences animals may be be at risk from being limited to

25 volts.

They are easily killed by close lightning strikes where they often present less resistance than the ground so when the strike raises the ground potential where the bolt hits the charge spreads out into the surrounding soil but when it reaches an animal it goes up through one pair of legs through the body and down the other pair. So don?t hold hands with someone in a thunderstorm.

GH

[alan_m]

If it's unexplained perhaps the rest od Europe. including us, should ban the import of French cows, beef products and milk as a precaution.

[harry]

Quadrupeds electrocuted die because their feet are so far apart so meaning they are subject to a higher voltage.

Also they are not wearing shoes.

Often their feet are sunk into soft wet mud.

[harry]

Journalistic bollix.

[Marland]

Any one check that some old leaky Battery chickens weren?t in a nearby field.

GH

[Brian Gaff]

I somehow suspect the cause is something else. It should surely be possible to do a cow autopsy? This all sounds a bit like world war 2 bomber found on the moon territory.

Apparently a lot of cows get struck by lightening in the world every year, but I'd imagine that might be just detectable by the smell of burned flesh. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Maybe they are but I'd have imagined that this has already been tested for by the powers that be and in any case such a power leakage would have caused the system locally to trip out. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes but it was found quite easily. I'm always suspicious when nobody is supposed to know why they died. Normally its injection of a toxin that causes the issue. I do not know enough about French farming practice to know how long they were dead before found. There was a problem some years ago with inbreeding in some herds causing death during birth due to the calf being dead in the womb. This is why nowadays bulls are used from vastly different blood lines where possible. If these were all heifers then something similar might be at work here. Brian