Foot-and-Mouth threat: no to mass slaughter, yes to vaccination of healthy animals
Foot-and-Mouth threat: no to mass slaughter, yes to vaccination of healthy animals
SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen wants to see preventative vaccination against Foot-and-Mouth Disease made compulsory. “The outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Great Britain has once again made it clear that the current EU policy is wrong," she said.
As things stand, vaccination might only be carried out if an outbreak in the country in question has been confirmed, and even then only after a so-called ‘standstill’ of 72 hours. In the meantime animals are slaughtered, with all the risks that entails for the spread of the virus. “As long as the outbreak is limited to Britain," Van Velzen said, "we should be patient. We can't do much more than forbid the movement of animals. We should really go back to the situation as it was before 1991 when animals were routinely injected against Foot-and-Mouth.”
That policy was ended in 1991 for purely economic reasons, because some countries would not accept meat from vaccinated animals. "That the market for for such meat outside Europe has perhaps diminished somewhat we can only accept," said Van Velzen. “The price of not doing so will be that at the next outbreak masses of healthy animals will once again have to be slaughtered. There is no support in the Netherlands for such animal-unfriendly policies."
Van Velzen is calling on agriculture minister Gerta Verburg to put the argument at European level for compulsory vaccination.