Foot and mouth vaccination plans under consideration
Speaking to the the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on Foot and Mouth disease yesterday, David Byrne, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, outlined the Commission's future policy in relation to combatting the disease.
He said it was now time to break with the approach viewing vaccination as a weapon of last resort, stating that: "The Commission is of the view that emergency vaccination should be moved to the forefront of the response mechanism in the event of future outbreaks".
He continued: "It is no longer acceptable to the public that large numbers of animals can be slaughtered and destroyed now that new diagnostic tests are available which differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals".
He confirmed that the forthcoming Commission proposal for a Council Directive on Foot and Mouth Disease, currently in translation, "will reflect these orientations".
Welcoming all the work undertaken by the European Parliament's Temporary Committee, he said: "Your forthcoming report and the Commission response will provide the opportunity for a full discussion of the lessons to be learned from the outbreak of foot and mouth disease last year".
The European Parliament's Temporary Committee is hoping to finalise its recommendations next month.
The full text of Commissioner Byrne's speech is available on the European Commission's website.
Foot and Mouth disease - UK Minister responds
The UK's Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP, also appeared before the European Parliament's Temporary Committee to defend the reaction of the UK Government to the foot and mouth crisis.
She rejected criticisms that the Government's response to the crisis had been one of "panic" and asserted that the lessons for the UK and Europe as a whole were that future decision-making should be based on risk assessment. She promised full co-operation with the European Commission and said that the approach now should be designed to keep foot and mouth disease out of EU member states. She emphasised that it would be impossible to legislate to prevent any future outbreak but welcomed the Commission plan to ban personal food imports.
She said that she saw vaccination as an option in any future strategy but declined to comment on the Commission's draft proposal, which she had not yet seen, adding that she would be "astonished" to read any criticisms of the actions taken by her Government.