British Ministers urged to make vaccines available

The British Government should authorise voluntary, targeted vaccination in the effort to combat foot-and-mouth, a coalition of groups has urged.

The grouping, led by the Soil Association and including the National Trust, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, argued that such an option would complement the Government’s preferred mass culling policy.

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, said: "MAFF face increasing public opposition to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of healthy animals, but farmers who do not agree with the NFU’s (National Farmers’ Union) support of the mass cull have no outlet to make their opposition heard.

"There is a huge amount of misinformation circulating about the effectiveness of the vaccine and worse still, most farmers still believe the NFU’s line that vaccinated animals would be compulsorily culled afterwards. This is simply not true.

"There is no reason why meat or dairy products from vaccinated animals should not pass into the food chain and the Government should reassure both retailers and consumers that there is no risk to human health."

The coalition called for vaccination to be available in two circumstances:

* For use as a strategic control in existing infected areas as a ‘‘firebreak’’ or cordon sanitaire’’ with all livestock species.

* For use by farmers on holdings anywhere in the UK who wish to protect their livestock from possible infection. This would enable producers to protect rare or native breeds, organic livestock or highly valued breeding livestock against the disease.