THE
planned mass slaughter of animals should be scrapped and replaced
with a widespread programme of vaccination for cattle, according to
a group of leading vets involved in the 1967 foot and mouth crisis.
They said that mass culling was no longer appropriate and that a
different approach was needed to forestall an even greater disaster
when cattle are moved out of their winter quarters on to grass in
the coming weeks.
Ken Tyrrell, Shropshire's former chief vet and one of the group
of veterans of the 1967 epidemic, said: "The cost of losing
livestock exports from the ending of our disease-free status would
be far lower than the price we would pay for losing a large part of
our national cattle herd. But that is what could now happen unless
action is taken very soon."
The vets said that the disease in sheep should be allowed to run
its course. This would put an end to the horrific scenes in Cumbria
where hundreds of thousands of sheep are now due to be burned. At
the same time there should be an emergency vaccination programme to
build a "firewall" around the most vulnerable cattle herds,
beginning in the South of England, where the exhaustion of winter
feed supplies means that cattle will have to go out on grass within
the next two weeks.
The vets from Shropshire and Cheshire, which were at the heart of
the 1967 epidemic, agreed that the Government's chaotic handling of
the epidemic was in stark contrast to 32 years ago. Brian Wilson,
former president of the Lancashire and Cheshire Veterinary
Association, supported the "firewall" vaccination proposal and
accused the Government of "gross ineptitude" in its handling of the
crisis.
Hugues Inizan, a Devon dealer, told the vets that the foot and
mouth infection had been found in 402 sheep shipped from Britain to
France on January 31 - three weeks before the outbreak was
recognised in Essex on February 19. Allowing for a two-week
incubation period this meant that the virus was present five weeks
before it was discovered at an abattoir in Essex, the vets were told
at a meeting on Friday.
The sheep, brought from the Brecon hills in South Wales, were
diagnosed with foot and mouth on March 7 and slaughtered. But the
fact that they were infected before shipment indicated that the
disease must have been around for at least two weeks.
The significance of this, it is claimed, is that if foot and
mouth has been widely established in Britain's sheep for over two
months then in many flocks the disease may have run its course. Foot
and mouth in sheep is much less serious than it is in cattle and
most sheep, after experiencing some days of discomfort, will
recover.
The most obvious disadvantage of the change of strategy would be
Britain's loss of its disease-free status, putting an end to a
livestock export trade worth £1.2 billion a year. But this is
already dwarfed by the likely cost of culling and compensation. The
new strategy could save most of Britain's sheep, pigs and cattle. It
would also mean that within only a week or two life in the
countryside could return to near-normality.
Permission for such a dramatic change of policy would have to be
given by the European Commission, since the strategy for containing
foot and mouth is dictated by Brussels. But as fears mount that the
disease could spread across the EU, it is likely that any proposals
to save Europe's livestock from the disaster now facing Britain
would be given much more serious consideration than was likely even
a week ago.
