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It seems one can only despair over the UK's
Bluetongue vaccination programme
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie,
Perthshire
Filed 23 Nov 07
©www.land-care.org.uk
The major threat of Bluetongue reaching the UK
from northern continental Europe has been known for a year or more.
And so it came to pass. The first UK case was confirmed on a farm
near Ipswich, Suffolk on 22nd September 2007 (1).
Should such a case appear in the UK, a contingency
plan had been drawn up by the authorities. But, as with all such
contingency plans in the UK, there was no consideration as to what
to do about vaccination, other than to consider it once the predictable
had actually happened. Such an approach clearly does not make any
scientific sense. Vaccination is at its most effective if done BEFORE
the viral threat gets a chance to get a grip.
So now, with Bluetongue serotype 8 (BT-v8) well
established in the midge population of southern England, we can
confidently expect clinical signs of Bluetongue to appear in the
five susceptible species next year: just as soon as the temperature
warms up and the midges get going. We can confidently predict that
the disease will spread northwards. It is likely to have devastating
effects on the cattle and sheep industries. The virus will be entering
virgin country where there are no defences other than vaccination.
So where are we in the UK with our BT vaccination programme?
The following recent entry in Hansard, which records
the activities of Westminster, makes depressing reading.
Hansard: 20 Nov 2007: Column 755W
"Bluetongue Disease:
Vaccination
Mr. Paice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs
(1) what estimate he has made of the cost of
tendering for bluetongue vaccine; [163456]
(2) when he expects to issue a formal tender
for a bluetongue vaccine bank; [163458]
(3) what estimate he has made of the number
of doses of bluetongue vaccine which will be necessary to eradicate
the disease from the UK; [163459]
(4) what plans he has for a vaccination strategy
for bluetongue disease when a vaccine becomes available. [163460]
Jonathan Shaw:
On 1 November, my Department issued a
tender to supply between 10 and 20 million doses of bluetongue
vaccine for a vaccine bank. We also announced that this decision
had been taken on the same day. The tender closes on 15 November
and an order will be placed as soon as possible after that date,
once we have assessed the bids submitted.
This step has been taken on the advice
of the Acting Chief Veterinary Officer and the core group of bluetongue
stakeholders, in light of the potential benefits that vaccination
could provide in managing disease should it re-appear next year.
Further work is also being carried out by the farming industry
on the likely take-up of that vaccine if a scheme were to be voluntary,
although that decision has not yet been taken. This work will
inform our final decision on the numbers of doses required.
The cost of establishing the vaccine bank
will be dependent on the size of the order placed and the outcome
of the tendering process. No assessment has been made of the cost
of the tender process itself.
We are developing a detailed vaccination plan with bluetongue
scientific experts, representatives of the farming industry and
others setting out how a vaccination programme would work. This
plan will be needed to seek the approval of the European Commission
to vaccinate. Discussions are also taking place with the European
Commission and other member states."
Comment
So the situation is that no vaccine has yet been
ordered. And what has been put out for tender is for a number of
doses that would clearly be utterly inadequate to protect the UK's
sheep and cattle, let alone additional goats etc.
There appears to be no intelligible strategy as
to how the 10 - 20 million doses would be deployed. On the basis
of these numbers Scotland would clearly get none. It would just
have to wait, as England did, until the disease arrives. And wait
in the long queue for more vaccine to be made by the vaccine manufacturers.
A long queue because most of the EU will be trying to play catch
up with BT vaccination which they should have planned long ago.
One really has to wonder just who is giving advice
to Defra. Or is Defra over-riding advice that it is being given?
Are the epidemiological modellers at work here, with their apparent
lack of understanding of how vaccination works? Or are the selfish,
short-term commercial interests of pedigree breeders being favoured
over the industry as a whole?
No scientist worth his/her salt would recommend
voluntary vaccination in the case of Bluetongue. Likewise, no scientist
worth his/her salt would recommend waiting until a predicted disease
arrives, rather than vaccinating before it arrives. But other so-called
"stakeholders" might, their ears deaf to science.
Gordon Brown, when he became PM, declared that
he would run open, transparent government. But there was little
open or transparent about the Government's statement, through Jonathan
Shaw, in Hansard. There was no comment about the EC offer to pay
100% for the vaccine and 50% of the vaccination costs if Member
States joined the EC scheme to try to eradicate BT. Instead, Hilary
Benn was suggesting that farmers could buy the vaccine from the
government if they chose to do so (2).
The vaccine manufacturers assure everyone that
making the vaccine is not the problem. But they do need tangible
contracts and a lead time of some 6 - 9 months. Clearly, the discussion
about how to possibly use BT vaccination that is taking place now
should have been held a year ago.
Gordon Brown, on taking office as PM, also promised
competent government. Sadly, the handling of Animal Health issues,
along with farming issues in general, seems to be yet another area
in which government has failed to show a modicum of competence.
Indeed, with regard to farming issues the Labour Government at Westminster,
as with so many other areas, seems to be digging itself into an
ever deeper hole.
At a time when scientific research and its application
to the dire problems that face the UK livestock industry is most
needed, Defra announces a cut back of some £250m in funding.
Defra has to find funds to meet the massive fines imposed by the
EC for incompetence in handling CAP subsidies payable to farmers
through the government's Rural Payment Agency in England and Wales:
largely thanks to the thoroughly discredited government minister,
Margaret Beckett.
The management of notifiable diseases of livestock
in the UK is not a devolved issue, while other aspects of Animal
Health are. So Scotland has to follow what Defra dictates as far
as outbreaks of viral diseases such as Foot and Mouth (FMD) and
Bluetongue (BT) are concerned. It is Defra that is the negotiator
for the UK with Brussels over these matters. And Defra does not
appear to be much interested in farming issues, with its disproportionate
emphasis on "the environment".
The vaccine manufacturers have rightly made it
clear that, to manufacture multiple millions of doses of a new vaccine
as demanded globally takes some 6 - 9 months from the time firm
orders have been placed and financial commitment made. Valuable
time was wasted by the EC as it argued interminably over the consequences
to trade from the spread of Bluetongue within EU Member States.
Only now does the EC appear to be tackling the obvious task of putting
together a coherent vaccination policy.
Yet in the UK, our urbane vegetarian Minister
for the Environment and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn tells us nothing
of this. He prefers to arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, as
he talks about "supporting farmers so that they could buy BT
vaccine from the Government on a voluntary basis if they wanted
to protect their livestock". This absurd approach to the problem
comes from the same government that failed to maintain essential
biosecurity at its own laboratory complex at Pirbright, that led
to FMD UK2007.
The outcome is that throughout the UK, Scotland
included, we are heading for the uncontrolled spread of BT in late
Spring or early Summer 2008. The spread will be uncontrolled because
the vaccine will not be available on time. But with a modicum of
better planning it certainly could have been.
©www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. Irvine, James (2007). The first
case of Bluetongue in the UK
See ANIMAL HEALTH - GENERAL - Homepage, filed 22 Sep 07,
www.land-cazre.org.uk
Click Here to View
2. Irvine, James (2007).
Defra press release concerning tendering for Bluetongue-v8 vaccine
makes incredulous reading
See ANIMAL HEALTH - GENERAL - Homepage, filed 02 Nov 07,
www.land-cazre.org.uk Click
Here to View
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