Although not on the agenda,Europe's spreading foot-and-mouth epidemic appeared likely to dominate an informal three-day meeting of EU farm ministers in Sweden, which begins today.
The ministers were also to considerreforms in the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).
|
|
EU Health and Consumer
Safety Commissioner Mr David Byrne |
Ecologists blame the intensive farming methods that CAPencourages for the foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease crisesdevastating EU farm markets.
Swedish Agriculture Minister Ms Margareta Winberg, whose countrycurrently holds the rotating EU presidency, has said she alsointends to vet ways of making the EU's food chain safer in the wakeof the devastating mad cow and foot-and-mouth outbreaks.
The farm ministers were also to take a close look at thecontroversial question of mass vaccination to stem thefoot-and-mouth epidemic, a move the EU is currently dead set against, seeing the cons as out-weighing the pros.
The European Commission, on the advice of its StandingVeterinary Committtee (SVC), has approved tightly limitedvaccination in Britain and the Netherlands to build "fire-walls"around infected sites to prevent spreading.
But, as Health and Consumer Safety Commissioner Mr David Byrne,told European Parliament last week, mass vaccination would be "alottery," costly, complicated and with no guarantee of success.
Some 300 million animals would have to be vaccinated every sixmonths against the seven known strains of the foot-and-mouth virus,and EU consensus was overwhelming against that, said the Irish Commissioner Mr Byrne.
EU policy has been against mass vaccination since 1991, and thecommission had stood firm on that. But commission sources said are-think could be in order once the current epidemic is undercontrol.
AP
