26/10/2015 Inside Out South West

Tonight, the extraordinary story about the little girl operated on in

the womb. We found out that one of the options is fatal surgery. --

foetal surgery. And Chris Packham discovers how to kill a deadly

beekeeping might. And the family forced to turn the lights out on

their industry. We are moving house because we have to, because the farm

is finished. We are leaving a lifestyle. I'm Gemma Woodman, and

that is Inside Out South West. First tonight,

a heart-warming tale about a little girl from Devon whose short life has

already been extraordinary. Frankie Lavis underwent a pioneering

and risky operation which you will see pictures of tonight while she

was still in her mother's womb. Her story is now giving hope

to others around the world. Frankie Lavis is fast approaching

her first birthday, but before the celebrations, there is another big

event, the appointment with the doctor who may have changed her

life. Initially we were told we would be lucky if she sat up let

alone walked, so it is nerve wracking to see that we're going to

see him again and see how well he thinks she is doing. We think she is

doing well. Frankie had spina bifida, a defect of the spinal

column. Many babies born with it grow up unable to walk

independently. Like 900 other British women a year, Jean

discovered Frankie had the condition at her 20 week scan. You come in

expecting to see your baby on the screen again and everything is game

to be fine, and we were being told it wasn't. At that point I was

overwhelmed, and quite devastated. Spina bifida develops in the womb. A

section of the spinal column doesn't form properly. The spinal-cord is

exposed through a gap in the skin to toxic chemicals in the amniotic

fluid. This causes further damage. The severity varies, but it can lead

to serious disability, and issues like in continents. Most women who

are told that unborn babies have spina bifida choose to end their

pregnancy, but for Jena, that was never an option. We went home, and I

cried, and cried a bit more, and went online, and we found out that

one of the options is foetal surgery. Foetal surgery is a

remarkable operation. The exposed spinal-cord is covered up while the

baby is still inside the womb. Normally this procedure happens

after birth, but Gina's enquiries led her to this man, one of

Europe's leading foetal surgeons. During pregnancy, the spinal-cord is

exposed to the toxic environment of the amniotic fluid, and the direct

trauma, the nerves that they get damaged, degenerate, and you have

limb function loss. This process you want to stop as early as technically

possible during pregnancy, and that is what foetal surgery does. Foetal

surgery was developed in the United States. Sam Caracas was one of the

first to undergo the procedure. Now 15, he can't do everything. Most of

my friends are football players, and I can't do that, because if I get

hit in my back, I could get seriously hurt. But he can do this.

This is body popping, a dance form that requires incredible Cording

ordination and control. -- coordination and control. It was

success stories like Sam's that convinced Gina to go ahead with the

foetal surgery. At 24 weeks pregnant, she travelled to Belgium.

There the professor carried out the Operation Weeting about to show you,

the first such case funded by the NHS. What can go wrong? You may not

be able to complete the procedure. This is not only disappointment the

team, but for the mother it is an unacceptable thing. It puts a lot of

burden on you, and there is no handbook for competitions. You have

to act on the spot what you think is the most reasonable thing to do. And

incision was made in Gina's abdomen and womb. Frankie is facedown, and

you can see her spinal-cord emerging through a large opening in her back.

The team close the hole with an artificially membrane, and in doing

so, protected her from further damage. After the operation, the

pregnancy continued as normal. Then at 35 weeks, Frankie decided to make

an early appearance. She came out screaming and kicking her legs, and

I could just about see from where I was, I could see her in the corner,

they wrapped this clingfilm around her to keep her back to did, and you

could just see this little pink thing screaming and wriggling her

feet. It was amazing. And when they brought her out, and you can see her

legs moving, it was amazing. Totally unbelievable. There were issues

early on. Frankie had to be treated her excess fluid on the brain, a

common feature of spina bifida. Only time would tell to what extent the

operation had been a success. 11 months on, Gina and Dan are

convinced that Frankie is as able as any other child her age.

But today she is meeting the professor. What will he think? It

will be nice to see him after the surgery last year, but it is a bit

nerve wracking as well to think what he might see how well she is doing

or how well he doesn't think she is doing. A bit nervous, really. The

professor has travelled from Belgium to Plymouth. He is cautiously

optimistic. You expect an improvement, but we don't

necessarily expect that it returns to completely normal. Also here is

Plymouth consultant Dr Ross Welch, who cared very Gina during her

pregnancy. Long time no see. It is. She has changed a bit.

Time for some checks. First the professor tickles Frankie's feet.

Her reaction is normal. Next he wants to check the muscle tone in

her legs. Has she got the strength to push against him? And then with

force as well, and she is pushing me away, that is clear. Finally, it was

a big operation of a tiny baby. Frankie has been left with quite a

scar. This particular family is of course a case that you really look

forward to seeing with your own eyes, a baby with a lesion that is

extremely high in the spinal column, that this recovers so well that this

baby is moving the legs, this is very exceptional. Both doctors are

delighted. I am astonished with Frankie, the improvement over what

we would have expected without prenatal surgery is really very

impressive. Frankie! The professor is impressed with how

well Frankie is doing over there. She has got movement, she has no

bowel or bladder problems and she is growing into a healthy, normal

little girl. What more could we want? It is amazing, really. A few

weeks later, there is a very special celebration.

Frankie is the happiest, most content diva you will ever meet. She

has a contagious smile and she is just a fantastic character, and she

is Frankie. Spina bifida is just a small part of her. Since Frankie,

three more babies from the UK have undergone foetal surgery on the NHS,

and Frankie has started crawling. It looks like there is no stopping her

now. For decades now,

Britain's beekeepers have been battling a deadly pest that's killed

bees in their millions. But now there may be a remedy

in sight, and in part that's thanks Chris Packham travelled up

the M5 to meet him. These hives in Wiltshire are

an unlikely location for an experiment that could help

save one of Britain's most Ron Hoskins has been keeping

bees since he was 12. are the subject of

ground-breaking research that could provide clues to the origins and

cure for a disease that has wiped The culprit is this tiny mite,

varroa. This pest and the diseases

associated with it have played a part in the deaths of about 30%

annually of all the bees in Britain. Some

of these little red dots are mites The mite gets into the hive

and then feeds on tiny bee larvae, That weakens them

and leaves them susceptible to The reason Ron's hives are exciting

interest is that his bees, although they had varroa and initially

big colony deaths, for many years he hasn't had any thing like

the death rates of other hives. Ron has never used pesticides to

kill the mites - he believes that his bees have learned how to groom

the larvae to rid them I first met him in 2011

for Springwatch - he spotted I had noticed that they had the

varroa mites, and I collected them and examined them and found a lot of

them were damaged. I'm pretty sure it was done by the bees grooming

them off. Monkey fashion. Not only that, these German pictures show

pictures in the actually unplugging

the larval cells in and dragging Armed with years of data,

Ron has gone further, breeding queens from hives that show

the best grooming behavior in an attempt to fix that

behavior in the next generation. hive and what about these hooks

either side? Those are the manipulators. They will open the

Queen ready for insemination. And what it guarantees is that you can

get your grooming gene into this receptive queen. We are going to put

as many drones as we can until we have a gene pool. Of hygienic bees.

Swindon saves the world of bees. Three years on,

and Ron is still impregnating And that, you might think,

was that - game over, plucky amateur This is Plymouth scientist

Declan Schroder, an expert in the viruses that affect sea plankton

- a range of viruses that are very similar in their genetic make-up to

those associated with varroa. He is a world expert on bee colony

collapse. His research showed a connection

between the presence of millions of viruses in a hive and the deaths

of bee colonies over the winter. They shouldn't survive. These

viruses, when they get into hives, you have no control. All our work

suggested that these hives should be dead, they shouldn't be alive. So,

every week, Ron collect these from his hives and sends them to Declan

to have the viruses within them analysed.

Back at the lab, they are frozen with liquid nitrogen, crushed up

and the resulting liquid is analysed in a sequencer for its DNA make-up.

The team are looking for two types of virus.

The first called Type A is carried by the mite and is linked

It's also strongly associated with colony collapse.

They're also tracking a second suite of viruses, type B,

named after the mite itself - the varroa destructor.

We looked at the hives, and we found high levels of virus. We only have

two options, it will be tied me or type V. -- type a or type B.

When the results came through, the DNA analysis showed

But what Declan saw about Ron's bees astonished him.

When I first saw it, I realised I had uncovered something amazing.

We saw two areas. You can clearly see type B being the only type

there. But this good be the answer to why Ron's bees are not dying.

As a virologist, Declan quickly realized that what was happening was

Mass vaccination was the immediate response to smallpox

And something like the vaccination process in humans

With smallpox vaccine, inert virus is injected.

That prevents the active virus from entering the system

But insects don't work in quite the same way humans do.

Insects don't produce antibodies in the way that humans do,

but they do exhibit something called super infection exclusion.

I think that is what's happening with Ron's bees - the presence

in large amounts of the varroa destructor virus has prevented

the much more dangerous deformed wing virus from getting a grip.

So there is a harmony developed, and it excludes any other virus from

entering, and particularly the dangerous form of type A.

And it's here that some of Ron's

For years Ron hasn't used chemicals on his hives,

relying on the bees' grooming behaviour to deal with the problem.

Crucially, he hasn't killed off the mites.

By not constantly killing them off, it could be that Ron's bees

and mites have adapted to each other and the suite of viruses

Other keepers, by killing the varroa off with pesticides, allow new mites

So perhaps inadvertently by not using chemicals, Ron must just have

opened up a way of protecting this insect that's so important

in pollination and for the general health of crops on our planet.

So what will Ron make of Declan's theory?

We have literature hives, and we are looking at the virus. What you have

is type B. This means that your hives are being protect to buy this

virus. It is classic virology, superinfection and exclusion. The

infection in your hives is excluding a really nasty virus, the type A,

from getting in. We suspect that the varroa is keeping your hives

immunised, in a sense. Amazing, isn't it? Fantastic stuff.

Declan's new theory doesn't mean that Ron's ideas of his bees

That may well be an important part of how the bees deal with

the disease by keeping the viruses in the hive in some sort of check.

Ron's very happy that decades of hard work counting endless mites

seems to have led to a breakthrough.

What you think about Declan's research? It is marvellous, very

good. It is probably what we anticipated was happening, but

didn't have the proof, said to have the proof is great. It started in

1995 when I found the first colony that appeared to be immune, and it

has progressed in Spain. 19 years, no chemicals, the bees have done it

for themselves. -- progressed since then.

Ron will continue his breeding

programme, and Declan wants to take further his research to find out

On the research will be published tomorrow in the international

scientific journals. Next tonight: It's been a dreadful year

for the South West's dairy farmers. A steep fall in the price they're

paid for their milk combined with an end to EU quotas has seen many

leave the industry altogether. Anna Varle has the story

of one Cornwall family facing up to For Mark Oliver, a lifetime's

work is coming to an end. I try and think about the future,

but I can't help but look round and think about

the things I have loved doing. Just getting the cows in this

morning on the sun was coming up, and it was a glorious morning, and

I'm not going to be doing it any more.

Overwhelming sadness it's all going to end.

All those years of breeding the herd, that's what

The difference it will be, not getting up and living on a farm.

The problem for Mark - a catastrophic drop in the price

We've fallen by 10 or 11 pence, so we are back to 23,

24 pence a litre, which is less than what it costs to make the milk,

His future depends on the price he can get

His rented home belongs to the farm, so he, wife Vicki and their three

It is not just leaving a house, often when you leave our house it is

something happy like a bigger house or you have a new job, but we are

moving house because we have to, because the farm is finished, so we

are not just leaving a house, we are leaving a lifestyle.

His brother-in-law Nigel, as well as his father and his sister,

They too are depending on the cattle sale to help them start new lives.

The cows have to be tested for the disease tuberculosis.

If any of them test positive, the value of

A lot of what we have built up over the years is now going to hinge on

one bomb on a cow's neck. If they go clear, it will be fine, if not, we

stand to lose a lot of money in the value of our cattle. -- one bump

Arnie cow's neck. It's vet Jo Osowska's job to look

for telltale bumps that indicate TB. In the last group, we ended up

with four cows who had reacted. So that is it now, the farm is shut

down. I feel physically sick

at the thought The market for his cows is

now severely restricted. They can only be sold to other

farms that also have TB. Going down with TB has made huge

difference in what the cattle are worth, so that is very

disappointing, and it makes life very difficult, because then you

have a window in which you have to move cattle because you on

restrictions. The cut in value

and the mounting debt has left them with almost nothing to show

for a lifetime of farming. Not very nice being our age, having

worked hard all those years, feeling we are starting again with almost

nothing, which for all the work that has gone into the farm and the

number of hours but he has worked and how family life has been

affected, you think, what was it all worse, what was the point?

At times we have hand over a thousand head of stock. It is a

strange feeling to walk around now with no livestock at all.

All that's left is to sell the farm's machinery.

It is the end of an era, and it is scary to think that this is what is

happening to our industry. Last year in the South West,

190 dairy farmers gave up. And many more across

the country say they're increasingly Back at the farm,

it's moving out day. To wake up and know that all our

stuff is gone as well as the cows. I guess that is when farming is really

over funny, then. -- over for me, then.

The family are going to live with Vickie's mum in Bodmin

Charlie is eight, he gets very upset about the thought of leaving school,

and leaving his friends and settling into a new school.

Whereas Annabel, she is six, and she is just excited still, but I think

when it actually comes to leaving and leaving the pets behind, she

will be really upset. I don't think she has really realised yet, because

we're going to grandmas, and that is exciting. They are used to being

outdoors all the time and being with the animals all the time, and we're

going to be living how most people live, in town, so I know it will be

fine, but it is the that is difficult.

Mark's been offered a job as a preacher in Plymouth.

My dad is caring for my stepmum, who is poorly, but they are doing their

best and keeping going, and the rest of the family are sorted with jobs

now, and they know we are going for now, so it is coming together. It is

just, every day is one day at a time, get the next thing sorted, and

by the grace of God, it is coming together now. They are now looking

to the future. In six months, we might still be at my mums, but in a

year, the children will be settled at school, we will have a new house,

everything will be fine, and we know that. But getting from here to that

point will be difficult. It has been very difficult in numerous ways, but

it has also given us a sense of relief that we have come out and we

can move on with our lives in a different direction, so mixed

feelings, if I am honest, but because of what has happened in

dairy, I think this is been the right time for us to give it up.

A new dawn is rising for Mark and his family, but for many others it

could be setting over the coming months.

And that's it from all of us at Inside Out tonight. Don't forget to

join us again next Monday at 7:30pm when we will have plenty more

stories and investigations. We will see you then.

Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with your 90-second update.

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