Livestock jabs ‘not ruled out’ amid fears of epidemic

Date: 01/03/01

By Laurence Frost

EU officials are refusing to rule out a massive livestock vaccination programme despite tough measures to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from the UK.

As European Voice went to press, the slaughter of 50,000 animals was under way in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in a bid to contain a potential Union-wide epidemic.

Although still regarded by experts as a 'nuclear option', the prospect of mass vaccinations and huge compensation claims is intensifying the debate over the direction of farm policy.

Experts believe it will lead to calls for an early reform of the agricultural budget, already stretched to breaking point by the BSE crisis.

Germany is leading demands for farm policy reform. "We need measures now towards a reorientation of agriculture policy instead of trying to handle problems with the current mechanisms," said one diplomat.

"If foot-and-mouth spreads all over Europe it would have a terrible effect," said another. "This would go to the highest levels of decision-making in the EU." Hopes that the outbreak could be confined to the UK receded when blood tests revealed that five sheep at a farm near Dusseldorf had been exposed to the disease.

The EU already faces an unanticipated bill for its 50% share of the compensation paid to farmers for emergency slaughter measures. Governments could face further monetary demands for loss of income on quarantined farms, which are kept devoid of animals for months following outbreaks.

Poland has already banned all livestock imports from the EU and neighbouring countries.

Any move towards vaccination would also risk deepening the crisis in EU meat markets. The Commission told MEPs this week it could prepare 8.5 million vaccines within within days if necessary.

The foot-and-mouth crisis could stiffen resistance to Fischler's beef market measures when the Commission submits them for member states' approval in committee tomorrow (2 March).

Insiders say plans to allow countries to choose between storing or destroying slaughtered beef will run into opposition from Italy, Ireland, the UK, Portugal and France.

Critics of the current farm policy say the spread of the disease is encouraged by precisely the intensive practices they want to reform. The density of animals on farmland is a factor, as well as the transport of animals between specialised rearing farms and finally to larger, cheaper slaughterhouses.

But farmers' lobby COPA-COGECA rejects the link between the animal epidemics and reform. "We should concentrate on the present and stop the outbreak of the disease - and not use these crises to push our reform agendas," said spokesman Mauro Galluccio.

EU officials are refusing to rule out a massive livestock vaccination programme despite tough measures to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from the UK.