Misinformation about vaccination
May 3 2002 warmwell.comMISINFORMATION m1 Control of FMD by vaccination alone accepts that the disease will be allowed to remain endemic in a livestock population
But according to our information and research...
The fear that vaccination causes FMD carriers and interferes with the eradication effort is not scientifically founded .
MISINFORMATION m2 If vaccination worked FMD would have been eliminated from the world long ago
There is much more chance of getting FMD carriers among cattle and sheep with clinical or subclinical FMD. There are NO documented cases where vaccinated animals with a qualified vaccine caused new outbreaks. As Dr. Simon Barteling has said, "To my knowledge there are not and none of my colleagues FMD-specialists could, so far, give me an example. Not in Europe and not in South America"
Susceptible animals need a minimum amount of infectious particles to become infected. Vaccinated carriers - indeed carriers in general - do not spread sufficient infectious particles to start an infection. Vaccination therefore will not result in disease springing up again.The facts about so-called carriers have been misunderstood. Dr Sutmoller's notes explain clearly what the situation really is.
But according to our information and research...
Europe became free of FMD by means of preventative vaccination. Only when the UK persuaded Europe to abandon its vaccination policy did FMD become a problem within Europe again.
MISINFORMATION m3 There is not enough vaccine
This argument about the world would preclude the continued use of vaccines for humans that the medical profession takes for granted such as that against polio or measles. Polio has not been eradicated worldwide but it HAS been eradicated from Europe by means of vaccination.But according to our information and research...
EU vaccine banks contain sufficient quantities (5 million cattle doses per type) of high potency vaccines to cover all the animals in outbreak areas. Sheep - if it is considered advisable to vaccinate them - can be protected by 1/3 of a cattle dose. The international vaccine producers keep stocks of FMD antigen for the rapid formulation of quantities of FMD vaccine.
MISINFORMATION m4 Consumers won't buy products made from vaccinated animals
"I think there was a good case for vaccination and I explored it very fully indeed. The key difficulty was that there was no guarantee that the public would buy the milk from vaccinated animals or eat the meat from cattle which had been vaccinated. The retailers said there is consumer resistance, we will not stock the product." (Nick Brown) http://politics.guardian.co.uk/footandmouth/story/0,9061,582642,00.htmlBut according to our information and research...
This argument ought to have been exploded long ago. The facts are these: Europe consumed vaccinated meat and milk for over 40 years. Supermarkets sell Argentinean beef - vaccinated at least twice - to no howls of outrage whatsoever. The National Consumer Council Press Officer, Kathryn Williams wrote in August2001 , we take the view that food from vaccinated beasts does not need to be labelled.
MISINFORMATION m5 Vaccination wouldn't have worked this time round - but it has always been an option "the disease had spread too far for vaccination to have been of any use in bringing the disease under control".But according to our information and research...
We can only repeat that we are quite sickened to hear the string of excuses as to why the UK did not vaccinate last year- in particular the mischievous (because wilfully inaccurate) statements of some scientists in this country who loudly reiterate that "the disease had spread too far for vaccination to have been of any use in bringing the disease under control". Uruguay illustrates quite dramatically how vaccination was precisely the tool to use in that situation.
The incident rates were comparable with those of the UK in 2001 and were about 50 per day one month after the outbreak. At this point vaccination of all the cattle was started. There was no slaughter on infected farms because the farmers resisted the idea. Instead, animals were quarantined and there was a standstill of animal movement. Almost 11 million cattle were vaccinated - the 12 million sheep grazing beside them were not.
Vaccination was carried out by the farmers themselves. It continued until the beginning of June followed by a booster programme until the third week of July. The outbreak incidence rate quickly dropped to a few incidences per day. Movement restrictions were discontinued on the 6th of June. On the 26th of August Uruguay had its last outbreak. There were no documented cases of animals vaccinated with a qualified vaccine causing new outbreaks.
This is just the point that must be made again and again - that the uncontained, multiple focus epidemic with unknown foci and uncontained spread is precisely the circumstance when vaccination should be used.
............................ Both Uruguay and Argentina have controlled the disease by vaccination only - not slaughter, since their farmers would rightly not permit it. They know that vaccination works - and it does. Israel too demonstrates that handling FMD can be simple. Israel does not slaughter the diseased flocks. It protects its very valuable high-production dairy cattle against FMD from surrounding countries by annual (preventive) vaccination programs and is very successful in that. If the surrounding countries did the same there would be no question of re-infection. If, because of the borders being shared by areas where infection is not controlled, vaccinated herds show signs of disease it is only in the unvaccinated calves.
This disease has been presented to the public as a terrible cataclysmic disaster, a threat to be feared from terrorists and a horror on a par with the Black Death. But Foot and Mouth is a disease that can be controlled. What cannot be controlled is the propaganda machine - and it is this that must be held responsible for the injustices of last year. Its centrifugal forces drew in even such trusted bodies as the RCVS and the RSPCA. The NFU Council, who ought to have been able to see through it and advise their members accordingly, were disastrously misled.