杏吧原创

FOOT and mouth disease could still be lurking on British farms, the
government鈥檚 chief veterinary officer warned last week. Speaking at a conference
in London on virology, Jim Scudamore warned that despite this week鈥檚 all-clear
following the world鈥檚 largest ever outbreak last year, the disease could flare
up again.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had no disease for three months, but it doesn鈥檛 give us absolute
reassurance that there鈥檚 no virus in the country.鈥� Flare-ups might occur when
farmers restock, he warned. 鈥淭here are huge numbers of farms to be restocked. If
disinfection is incomplete, it may recur.鈥� There were no fewer than 18 flare-ups
after Britain鈥檚 last big epidemic in 1967, Scudamore said. But there could be
more this time around because of the sheer scale of the epidemic. There were
2026 confirmed cases and 4 million animals were slaughtered at almost 10,000
farms to prevent the disease spreading. In the 1967 outbreak, only about half a
million animals were slaughtered.

Scudamore said that the government might consider vaccination in the future,
but defended the decision not to use it last year. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe that, on its
own, vaccination would have eliminated foot and mouth from the UK,鈥� he said.

The government considered using it on 12 occasions, but decided against it
each time for a variety of reasons, from the reluctance of farmers to sheer
impracticality. 鈥�175 vaccination teams would鈥檝e been needed for Cumbria alone,鈥�
he said.

Scudamore also revealed figures suggesting that more animals might ultimately
have been culled anyway had vaccination been used. He said that in the
Netherlands, where vaccination was used to contain 26 cases, 2600 were
slaughtered per infected farm. In Britain, the figure was 2000.