Email a Friend
Printer Friendly

Rapid response needed to tackle outbreaks of livestock diseases

July 16, 2002

The UK should seek to remain free of foot-and-mouth disease without using routine vaccination, the Royal Society recommends in a report published today (16 July 2002). However, the UK Government must make a major effort with other European Union Member States to ensure that, by the end of next year, emergency vaccination can be used as a primary means of preventing any future outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease from becoming an epidemic.

The report was prepared by a committee appointed by the Royal Society, which was commissioned by the Government last year to carry out an independent inquiry into scientific aspects of the transmission, prevention and control of outbreaks of infectious disease in livestock.

Routine vaccination is not recommended for the UK, as long as the risk of disease entering the country remains low and provided the arrangements for handling outbreaks are improved. But the report calls for a long-term international research effort to develop a vaccine that confers sterile lifelong immunity against all foot-and-mouth strains, which would globally reduce the threat from the disease.

The report concludes that “for the foreseeable future there is no alternative, when an outbreak occurs, to the rapid culling of diseased animals, and all those that are known, or very likely, to have been infected by them”. However, the report points out that these measures alone will not always halt the spread of an outbreak, and that emergency vaccination would be better than extensive culling to prevent it from becoming an epidemic. A policy of ‘vaccinate to live’ should be preferred, such that vaccinated animals that have not been infected are not automatically culled and their meat and meat products are allowed to enter the human food chain. The report highlights the need for a significant effort by DEFRA to resolve a number of outstanding issues relating to emergency vaccination by the end of 2003, such as validation of tests to distinguish between vaccinated animals that have been infected and those that have not.

The report also stresses that contingency arrangements should be improved, with Parliament approving in advance the broad principles underlying disease control strategies and the associated plans. These plans should be subjected to an annual practice rehearsal and a formal three-yearly review, established by the Prime Minister, to ensure they take account of the latest developments and can be implemented rapidly in response to an outbreak.

Sir Brian Follett FRS, chair of the inquiry committee, said: “Globalisation has caused an increased risk of infectious animal diseases entering the UK. The overall objective of the national policy must be to minimise the risk of a disease entering the country and reaching the farm. If an outbreak does occur, it must not be allowed to develop into an epidemic, as has happened a number of times in the last century.”

The report emphasises the importance of the UK and EU strengthening early warning systems that identify potential outbreaks and tightening import controls over meat products. If an outbreak in the UK is suspected, local bans on the movement of livestock should be imposed, followed by a national ban if it is confirmed. New tests, including those that can be used by vets on farms, need to be developed to diagnose infection rapidly.

Royal Society, The

RSS Feeds

Rapid response needed to tackle outbreaks of livestock diseases

Science Research Departments