MEPs call for FMD vaccination plan

A report of the committee’s findings will not be produced until early autumn, to be debated by the European Parliament in November, but during its visit to Northumberland yesterday, its vice-chairman, Caroline Lucas, said: "Vaccination is a key issue. Personally, I think there should have been much more emphasis on it last year.

"The NFU did its members a disservice by not making it clear that there was provision for vaccination and compensation."

Lucas, one of the few Green MEPs, said that the temporary committee of inquiry had established from evidence heard in Brussels that the UK epidemic, in which up to 10 million animals were slaughtered on almost 10,000 farms, had been badly handled, with bureaucracy the main problem.

That had been emphasised during the past three days when talking to farmers and rural business owners "on the ground" in south-west Scotland, Cumbria and Northumberland.

She said: "It is clear that there should have been much more contingency planning. When the outbreak started, local vets should have been trusted and given much more authority, as in Holland, instead of London trying to control operations. How much was EU law and how much of the problem was London’s interpretation of EU law?"

The committee’s report and recommendations have no legal power but Ms Lucas said: "We think it will have moral power for change."

Philip Whitehead, the Labour MEP for the East Midlands, said an action plan was vital because foot-and-mouth would be back: "World trade and people travelling much more make that certain.

"We’re not the only country having problems with illegal meat imports. Germany alone has great problems with large numbers of its Turkish work force bringing meat back when they visit their home country.

"We’ll be better prepared for animal disease next time, whether it’s foot-and-mouth or swine fever, but it will be back."

Wolfgang Kreissl-Dorfler, a German MEP and former farmer, who will write the committee’s report, said that vaccination had not been possible in the UK last year as the epidemic spread too quickly and too far, but he expected recommendations for a future vaccination policy to be a central part of his report.

He said; "Animals are vaccinated against lots of things. Why not foot-and-mouth?"

Malcolm Corbett, chairman of Northumberland NFU during much of the epidemic, was one of the farmers who met the MEPs at Hexham mart yesterday, and supported "vaccination next time".

He said: "It was not possible last year, but we vaccinate animals to try to prevent a wide range of diseases, so why not foot-and-mouth?

"The proviso is that any policy, for vaccination or much better control of legal and illegal meat imports must be EU-wide."