Letter published in the Independent
There are two reasons that vaccination does not
mean the end of the country's foot and mouth free status
(Foot-and-mouth: record number of new cases, 15 March) . First, the
country is plainly and self-evidently not free of FMD. Second, there
is not a strict either-or choice between eradication via culling on
the one hand, and endemic disease with vaccination on the other.
Vaccination targetted onto at-risk herds can help to bring the
present outbreak to an end. An infected herd exhales a bubble of
virus-polluted air which drifts downwind to settle on neighbouring
herds. If the receiving herd is not vaccinated, it succumbs, and
acts as the next stepping stone for the progress of the epidemic. If
the herd is vaccinated, the virus is killed by the collective
antibodies in the herd, does not replicate, and so tends to die out.
True, some of the animals in the vaccinated herd will get
subclinical infection, but this does not matter so long as they stay
on site until they are killed. This is how vaccination works, and
this is why we give it to our children: herd immunity gives us the
chance to eradicate disease by denying a foothold to infective
agents.
Vaccination is a tool to help is eradicate the
illness. MAFF is delaying the use of this tool because of an
inflexible mindset that identifies vaccination with endemic disease.
The sooner they start using vaccination for at-risk herds, the
sooner the country will recover from this tragic mess.
Yours
Dr Richard Lawson
The Editor
The Irish Times
25/3/01
Sir,
The UK Green Party extends its sympathies
to all the people of Ireland who are affected by Foot and Mouth. We
hope that your Government will not follow the example of Tony Blair,
who has tried unsuccessfully to stop this virulent O strain by
lashing about him with a club - a nineteenth century solution to a
twenty first century problem. Ring Vaccination is the solution, and
the sooner the better. Bertie Aherne should apply to the EU now for
permission to use it, since by the time he has the forms safely
filled in, it may be that the problem in Ireland, sadly, will fulfil
the EU conditions that apply for emergency vaccination.
Yours
&c.
Richard Lawson
To the Editor, The Daily Mail
Dear Sir,
Tony Blair has a cheek telling us to get a "sense
of proportion" about going into the countryside.
He is allowing his officials to carry out a policy
of mass slaughter which abuses animals, traumatises farming
communities, pollutes the air with disease causing agents, moves
dirty animals through clean areas, pollutes the watercourses, ruins
the economy, drives small farmers off the land and opens the way for
multinational corporations to buy up our countryside to plant their
patented seeds in prairie fields. All this in a bungled attempt to
control a minor ailment which could have been curtailed weeks ago
had emergency ring vaccination been used in the early stages of the
outbreak.
A sense of proportion! Come on Tony, get a grip.
Cull your experts and ring vaccinate the animals.
Dr Richard Lawson
Green Party F&MD
Campaign Co-ordinator
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