FMD - UPDATE 6 

Dr. Richard North PhD. [UKIP]
16 April 2001 

Vaccination and Disease-free status 

Amazingly, the government and its scientific advisors have just woken up to the prospect of winter-housed cattle being turned out on to grass. They have finally realised that these animals will be vulnerable to infection - a problem identified by this author on 25 March. One wonders which planet these people have been living on for the past six weeks. 

Nevertheless, for that reason, the MAFF is now reversing its opposition to vaccination and coming round to the idea that it is essential to prevent a new round of infection. 

But the issue lurches into the surreal with discussions about how vaccination will affect Britain's disease-free status. What commentators seem to fail to have realised is that we are in the middle of a foot and mouth epidemic. We have already lost our disease-free status. The question is, therefore, not whether we lose it but how we get it back. 

Here, there is terrible confusion, not least because of the complexity of the rules and the failure to understand that - with EU involvement - we are operating under two different sets of rules, the international rules set out by the OIE and the internal rules set by the EU. Of the two sets of rules, however, the OIE international rules are of very little relevance as our ability to trade, both with the community and with third countries is determined by the EU, which is not a signatory to the OIE and is not bound by its provisions. What count, therefore, are the internal EU rules. 

In this context, UK trade with the community was banned by a decision made on 21 February (Commission Decision 2001/145/EC) amended several times. However, the specific executive instrument (which authorises a prohibition on trade) does not appear to be identified in the Decision. 

To that effect, the Decision relies for its authority on Council Directive 90/425/EEC as last amended by Directive 92/118/EEC and Council 89/662/EEC, again amended by Directive 92/118/EEC, and on Directive 85/511/EEC (as amended). But none of these instruments appear specifically to authorise the Commission to prohibit intra-community or third country trade. 

Therefore, it must be assumed that the Commission is relying for its authority on the Treaty establishing the European Community, in which case the operative Article is most certainly Article 30 (formerly Article 36) of the TEC. Additionally, though, the Commission might also be relying on general authority to act in relation to foot and mouth disease, conferred by Article 16 of Directive 85/511/EEC - "The Commission shall adopt measures and shall implement them immediately…". 

Either being the case, there are no clearly defined rules by which the Commission - having prohibited intra-community trade - is or will be bound in removing the prohibition, other than having to refer to the standing veterinary committee for an opinion. 

On this basis, it cannot be assumed that the Commission will necessarily be bound by the OIE code, removing restrictions one year after vaccination or, as the case may be, three months or one year after the last outbreak, as is specified in that code. We are in uncharted waters. There are no specific Community rules. 

Clearly, however, restrictions will not be removed until some time after the current epidemic has been brought under control. Some clues as to how the Commission will approach this are given in Council Decision 2001/257/EEC (authorising vaccination in the UK), where the authority of Article 16 (85/511/EEC) is cited in respect of restrictions applied to fresh meat. Here it is specified that those restrictions shall apply "…not earlier than 12 months after the completion of vaccination and 12 months after the latest outbreak in the vaccination zone, whichever is the latest. 

It is possible, on this basis, that the Commission might apply these criteria to the generla export prohibition, but this cannot be guaranteed. Once again, therefore, we are in that twilight world that arises from our membership of the EU, the shadowy world we first encountered at Florence in June 1996 when John Major had to negotiate the terms for the lifting of the export ban on British beef. Then we were in uncharted waters and the resolution of the ban was determined as much by political as technical issues, none of which could have been predicted in advance. 

Following the BSE precedent, it would be similarly unwise to predict when, and on what terms, the export ban for British livestock, meat and meat products will actually be lifted. The only thing we can predict with any certainty is that negotiations will be intensely political and their outcome will be determined by a myriad of factors, many of which we cannot at this stage anticipate. 

Logically, therefore, it would be equally unwise to factor in calculations on the restoration of disease-free status into our considerations of whether or not we should vaccinate. The only thing which is important in this context is whether vaccination will end the epidemic faster than if no such action was taken. For, if there is any certainty, the export ban will not be lifted until foot and mouth has been eliminated from the UK. 

ends 

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