3 Vaccination or cull
13. The contiguous cull of 2001 remains highly controversial
as healthy animals may have been slaughtered. The Department had
commissioned a major cost benefit analysis looking at four different
disease control strategies, including a contiguous cull. The results
were expected to be made publicly available but were currently
waiting peer and other expert review.
14. The Department had set out its likely response
to a future outbreak. The first line of disease control would
still be the slaughter of susceptible animals on infected premises
and dangerous contacts in line with European Union requirements.
Depending on the circumstances, the Department would then consider
using a policy of vaccination to live, making use of the Decision
Tree (Figure 2) developed as part of its contingency plan.
The Department had no plans for a repetition of the mass funeral
pyres used to dispose of carcasses in the 2001 outbreak.[16]
Figure 2:
The Decision Tree showing the factors influencing the decision
of when to vaccinate animals
Factors influencing the decision of when
to vaccinate animals have been set out by the Department in a
Decision Tree included in the Foot and Mouth Disease contingency
plan
Note:
1 The Office International des Epizooties (OIE) determines
the disease status of countries for the purpose of international
trade in animal products.
Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs' Foot and Mouth Disease Contingency Plan, Annex D, December
2003
15. The Department needed to educate consumers about
alternatives to culling, including vaccination to live and vaccination
to die. Vaccination was not used in 2001 partly because of the
actual and anticipated farmer and consumer resistance to meat
from vaccinated animals. Too little information had been made
available to the public, farmers and supermarkets about the effects
of vaccination on public health, and about the impact of vaccination
on the export status of UK beef. Meat from animals vaccinated
against other diseases was already on sale in the UK. Individual
farmers might still need to be persuaded, however, as might retailers
and consumers. The Department confirmed that it had legal powers
under a Statutory Instrument to vaccinate in a vaccination zone
even if farmers objected. The National Farmers Union supported
the use of vaccination.[17]
16. The Department had practical arrangements in
place to enable it to vaccinate infected cattle within five days
of disease confirmation. A range of vaccines covering nine different
strains of the disease were available. As an outbreak could result
from more than one virus strain, the Department also had access
to vaccines covering other strains held elsewhere in the European
Union.[18]
16 Qq 14, 18, 123-124 Back
17
Qq 42-44, 93-104, 127-135 Back
18
Q 42 Back
| 
