Foot-and-mouth threat brings Commission vaccination proposal

Date: 19/12/02

THE Commission adopted a proposal yesterday (18 December) which would empower it to initiate emergency vaccination of EU livestock if the animals were deemed at risk from the highly infectious foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease.

David Byrne, the health and consumer protection commissioner, said emergency vaccination should be moved to the forefront of the EU's response mechanism to FMD outbreaks and replace the controversial culling of animals.

The plan aims to use vaccination as a matter of course, not a last resort. But MEPs meeting in plenary in Strasbourg on Tuesday (17 December) disagreed with Byrne on using vaccination of livestock as a "tool of first resort".

German Socialist deputy Wolfgang Kreissl-Dorfler said vaccination of livestock should run alongside eliminating the "discrimination" between products from animals that have been immunised and those that have not.

Bryne said mass vaccination, which differs from emergency vaccination as it requires the continuous vaccination of livestock, was not the answer.

The European Commission adopted a proposal on 18 December 2002 which would empower it to initiate emergency vaccination of EU livestock if the animals were deemed at risk from the highly infectious foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease.