Tuesday April 17 10:57 AM ET
UK Farmers: Vaccination Could Make Cattle Worthless

By Elizabeth Piper

LONDON (Reuters) - Cattle herds in England may become worthless and little more than a countryside attraction if Britain goes ahead with a vaccination policy in areas worst hit by a foot-and-mouth epidemic, farmers said on Tuesday.

Farmers have demanded answers over the government's proposal to vaccinate cattle in two regions of England before the animals are led out to pasture, saying their support rested on whether the industry would survive the ``radical'' measures.

Robert Forster, head of the National Beef Association, said livestock buyers could shun immunized cattle which may still carry the highly infectious livestock disease because injections only mask the clinical signs of foot-and-mouth.

``It could kill off the cattle trade in these areas because if you buy one of these animals and bring it onto your farm, it could erupt spontaneously with foot-and-mouth disease and spread it further. And you don't want that,'' he told Reuters.

``The political will is certainly to introduce a vaccination program. There will be fewer carcasses, less slaughter and the place would look cleaner and the tourists may come back to look at cows. But the industry has to look at it in terms of lost value, reduced markets and whether it will prolong the crisis.''

Britain is anxious to woo tourists back, embarking on a publicity blitz to try to reassure the world that the country is a safe holiday destination despite television footage of blazing funeral pyres piled with the dead carcasses of farm animals.

But new burial or burning sites have to be found with the number of confirmed outbreaks reaching 1,341 and more than 1.6 million livestock either slaughtered or earmarked for slaughter.

Clear Up Carcasses

``Vaccination would mean they would clear up the carcass backlog,'' Forster said.

He said the reaction of cattle farmers in the two areas -- Cumbria in northwest England and Devon in southwest England -- had been mixed, with some just wanting to see the end of what has become an almost two month nightmare.

But the National Farmers Union called on the government to explain its U-turn in policy and address farmers' concerns.

The government had all but ruled out vaccination, saying Britain would lose its disease-free status and its export markets for meat and maybe milk.

``The use of vaccination could have long-term damaging consequences. There is a possibility it could actually spark more outbreaks and it is highly likely that it will delay the resumption of exports considerably,'' NFU President Ben Gill said in a statement.

``Farmers are so desperate to save herds and flocks they want every avenue to be explored. We need firm answers to the questions we have asked.''

Forster said it would be difficult to persuade owners of pedigree cattle to adopt vaccination, which some UK newspapers suggested would be decided on by the end of this week, because they would lose valuable export markets for semen, embryos and sometimes live animals.

``Pedigree owners are extremely alarmed because vaccination would devalue their animals immediately. It would just wipe out all their effort,'' he said, adding that the industry was continuing to talk to the government about the policy.

Beef sales, all but recovered after Britain's mad cow crisis, should be unaffected after Britain's Food Standards Agency assured farmers that they could get certificates for the meat after meeting various regulations.

``I can see the advantages of a vaccinate-to-live policy for the cattle economies of Cumbria and Devon,'' he said.

``I just wonder what the price is.''

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