Group presses for virus vaccination

22 June 2001



Group presses for virus vaccination

By FWi staff

THE newly-formed National Foot-and-Mouth Group is pressing for the use of vaccination to end the epidemic.

Group members include representatives from farming, tourism, the rural economy and the public, who are concerned about the scale of the slaughter policy.

Spokeswoman Janet Bayley said: We would like to open a dialogue with the government to consider whether limited vaccination to inoculate susceptible animals and prevent further spread of the disease would deliver disease-free status in the most sensible timescale.

Some experts believe that ring vaccination would have been a quicker and cheaper means of containing foot-and-mouth.

Four new cases of foot-and-mouth have been reported in Cumbria on Friday (22 June) taking the UK total to 1777 cases.

A total of 3,398,000 animals have been slaughtered, including 534,000 cattle, 2,734,000 sheep, 128,000 pigs, 2,000 goats.

The carcasses of 8,000 remain to be disposed of and 18,000 animals await slaughter.