Countries Debate Vaccination Policy.(Brief Article)

2001 MAY 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

As of the end of March 2001, many parts of Britain were closed to visitors. The tourist industry was losing millions every week. It was suggested the general election may be postponed. And over a million perfectly healthy cattle, sheep, and pigs were being slaughtered in a desperate bid to end the epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

As the carcasses pile up, some experts are questioning the no-vaccination policy of most developed countries. The relentless rise in international trade and tourism means preventing such outbreaks is getting harder and harder, while new vaccines and tests mean there's no reason why countries that vaccinate shouldn't export, they say. The policy may now be more an excuse to bar cheap meat imports than it is sound science.

An article in a recent edition of New Scientist discussed the arguments underway about vaccinating livestock against FMD.

The Netherlands already plans to use emergency vaccination if its outbreak gets out of control. This means inoculating all animals within 3 kilometers of an outbreak and then slaughtering them later. There are hints that Britain might follow suit.

But Belgium and The Netherlands want to go much further. They are asking the European Union to let them use vaccines routinely. Most EU countries say no. The big problem with vaccination is that some vaccinated animals only become weakly immune. This means they can still be infected and possibly pass the disease to other animals yet not show any obvious symptoms. This is why disease-free countries won't buy animals, meat, embryos, or semen from countries that vaccinate.

Stopping vaccination, in contrast, makes it easy to tell if animals are disease-free, as any stray pathogen will trigger full-blown disease.