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The Netherlands Allowed to Use Vaccines to Fight FMD
European Union (EU) veterinary experts agreed Friday to let the Netherlands to use vaccines limitedly in fight against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
But they ruled out a mass inoculation plan to try to control the livestock virus which has so far also hit three other EU countries -- Britain, France and the Irish Republic.
The decision came as the number of confirmed FMD cases reached over 500 in Britain. Meanwhile, the British government admitted the outbreak was out of control and its chief scientist warned that half of the country's livestock may have to be slaughtered.
The 15-nation EU's chief veterinarians met in a special session Friday afternoon to discuss Dutch requests to use vaccines around farms where FMD was confirmed Wednesday. In their voting, 11 of the 15 countries approved the proposal.
"They can vaccinate on a very limited scale if a special situation arises, within a 10 kilometer area around the affected zone," said Sven Johansson, deputy director of Sweden's board of agriculture.
He also said that animal slaughter remained the major weapon against any outbreak and the Netherlands would not begin inoculating animals yet.
The EU generally opposes blanket vaccination as countries opting for that measure would lose their FMD-free status and so their international meat and livestock markets, because current testing methods could not tell the difference between animals infected with FMD and those that have been vaccinated against the highly contagious disease.
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