Emergency vaccination is being considered as an option to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth, the British government announced yesterday. Ministers have also proposed a ban on pigswill and a 20-day "standstill period" on the movement of sheep, goats and cattle.
Signalling a shift in the government's policy to contain the spread of the disease, the Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, said contingency plans were under way to enable the use of vaccine on animals in a ring around infected farms at short notice.
Vaccination was "no easy option" but Mr Brown said the government would seek permission from the EU's standing veterinary committee to use vaccine "so that it can be deployed immediately if we conclude that it is the right approach".
A further 39 cases were confirmed early last night, bringing the total to 673. So far, 423,000 animals have been slaughtered with another 697,500 awaiting slaughter.
In a statement to the Commons, Mr Brown pledged the government would "succeed in eradicating foot-and-mouth" and said ministers and the farming industry would "learn the lessons and minimise the risks of such a tragedy in the future".
The Conservative agriculture spokesman, Mr Tim Yeo, criticised the government, saying vaccination should have been considered much earlier.
Unveiling a package of new measures, Mr Brown did not directly refer to reports that the source of the outbreak was illegally imported meat bought by a Chinese restaurant which ended up in swill fed to pigs at a farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland. He told MPs that he had concluded a ban on feeding swill was the right course of action because the "potential risk" of infection outweighed the benefits.
He also revealed that lesions found on animals at the Northumberland farm on February 22nd meant the disease had been incubating for at least two weeks, possibly up to three weeks, before it was identified. However, the spread of the disease was exacerbated because the movement of livestock around the country for several days after the first case was confirmed meant the disease quickly spread to other farms.
Acknowledging farmers had experienced "a dreadful time", he said the "scale and spread" of the outbreak was driven, in part, by the increase in the movement of animals. A 20-day ban on the movement of sheep, goats and cattle after purchase would act as an effective method of disease control and would prevent the illegal movement of animals.
"If a similar requirement had been in place and observed, in relation to sheep in particular, it is likely that the spread of the foot-and-mouth virus would have been significantly slowed down, making tracing and control of the infection easier," Mr Brown told MPs.
Amid grumbles from the Conservative benches, Mr Brown said tracing the movement of sheep had been made more difficult partly due to unrecorded sales of sheep at markets after the confirmation of the first case of foot-and-mouth on February 20th and the ban on the movement of livestock.
Earlier, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, held talks with farmers and business and tourism representatives from the West Midlands, where, he said, it had been "immensely difficult" to track the disease. He praised the effort being made by farmers, the army and the public.