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Scotland agrees at stakeholders meeting to
order Bluetongue vaccine without further
delay for all its cattle and sheep
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie, Perthshire
Filed 07 Mar 08
©www.land-care.org.uk
At the stakeholders meeting this morning Charles Milne, Scotland's Chief Veterinary Officer, agreed to put in motion the ordering of sufficient Bluetongue vaccine serotype 8 to cover all the cattle and sheep in Scotland. It is a great relief that there will be no further delays in reaching this important, but somewhat belated, decision.
Hopefully the practicalities of placing the order, and when it will be delivered, will be handled with all possible speed. What is needed is to have the vaccine available for immediate use as soon as the unreasonable constraints imposed by the EC can be lifted, or as soon as possible under the existing bizarre EC rules. Allegedly the order books of Intervet and of Merial are full, making their delivery dates unacceptable. There is thought that there is a possibility that Fort Dodge may be able to supply Scotland with an efficient, safe vaccine by June 2008. Let us hope so.
Currently. the EC insists that vaccination for Bluetongue can only be done within Bluetongue Protected Zones. It would of course be far better for a country like Scotland, that is Bluetongue free but at high risk of being infected this summer, to vaccinate before the disease arrives. Vaccination is a highly efficinet preventative tool, not a treatment.
But at last the decision has been taken at stakeholders level to get on and order the vaccine for Scotland. It is understood that there were no dissenters.
©www.land-care.org.uk
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