My concern with any wholesale slaughter, be it sheep, cattle or elm trees is that we never discover the resistant genes. Which to my mind is bad science.
And in the meantime the disease continues to spread…
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Dr MarkH - I too remember the appalling tragedy of foot & mouth wholesale slaughter in the UK. And yes, where we lived - we could both smell - and see - the funeral pyres. It was a terrible, terrible time for the farmers. As you point out it is not ‘just’ the slaughter of the herd, it is generations of breeding, investing time and money and experience to build up a good herd of cattle. Farmers’ distress at that time was tangible. The country-side was not the same without the herds of cattle, and many farmers committed suicide, or suffered long term depression. The countryside felt in mourning.
But isn’t there a huge difference between F&M and the ‘lumpy’ disease in that the lumpy disease is not transmittable to humans. There is no danger to humans in consuming meat from an animal with this disease. It is only that such meat cannot be exported; is very much of this meat exported elsewhere ? Haven’t there been cases in North America of some wild deer also having this ‘lumpy’ disease - and the wildlife experts have said that’s it’s not serious, doesn’t affect the animals - and seems to disappear or clear up during the spring and summer season.
But, despite the attacks by french farmers on british live exports - remember them burning alive sheep and lambs which were they were being transported from ferry ports - my sympathies lie with the french farmers; they have a very tough job, little money to be made from all their hard work - and the squeeze from the supermarkets and consumers doesn’t help at all. We need the farmers - for food - and for their hard work in protecting and being caretakers of the countryside. What’s a little inconvenience to us - when it is a group of essential workers wanting to keep their livelihoods and life time work continuing.
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Surely the problem is that if the problem spreads more and more farmers suffer the consequences of that problem.
Incidentally, there must be many SFers who aren’t allowed to donate blood here as a consequence of having lived in the UK during ‘mad cow’.
We’ll, the track has been cleared and tested and trains have resumed this morning so we should be going back to Carcassonne later today. Except, someone seems to have chucked something on the line near Lézignan-Corbières 
I would always prefer trains to planes, but there is no train to Lanzarote, it being an island in the middle of the Atlantic. I mapped out the none plane journey hoping I could travel that way: train to Lyon then change for Barcelona, change for Southern Spain, ferry for 3 days to Lanzarote, cost around €500 . I can’t afford that.
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That would be a really cool journey to take by train and boat but yes, a bit pricey indeed!
And, I think that was one way.
Ouch!! ….well maybe one day if you come across a pot of gold. 
The ferry is cheaper for residents of the Canaries.
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Probably quite a few more, undocumented.
Good. Then with respect, have some sympathy.
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