Archive Article: 2002/07/19
F&Mvaccination a welcome move
At last, common sense on the subject of vaccination to control foot-and-mouth. The Royal Societys recommendation that vaccination should be used to prevent disease spread should surprise no one.
The reason vaccination remained unused last year was not, as many politicians and some journalists would have us believe, because of intransigence on the part of farmers and the NFU. The real reason, aside from prolonged government dithering, was that supermarkets refused to promise to sell meat from vaccinated animals.
Vaccination is a valuable second line defence against F&M. First line defences should be much tighter import controls and decisive government action – irrespective of the date of the next general election.