British government advisers and farmers' representatives yesterday failed to reach an agreement on the proposed limited vaccination of cattle as a means of tackling foot-and-mouth. The government's scientific adviser, Prof David King, and the Chief Veterinary Officer, Mr Jim Scudamore, support the selective vaccination of cattle in Cumbria and Devon but officials have acknowledged that vaccination will not work without the support of farmers.
The farming industry is divided on the issue and after meeting officials for talks at Downing Street, the president of the National Farmers' Union, Mr Ben Gill, pledged he would not be "bounced" into accepting vaccination which the government said it accepted "in principle" on Tuesday.
"I will stick to my analysis of the strategy with the help from the best brains," Mr Gill said as he left Downing Street. "There is an element of urgency here. If we were going to do a vaccination policy, we would have to time it properly but I think the need to delay it until we have got the answers is absolutely paramount."
The Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said the best advice available to farmers was that vaccination "in principle" had a role to play in preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth, but officials required "sufficient support" to implement a vaccination scheme.
Some farmers support the scheme but many others are sceptical about the benefits of vaccination and fear inoculation will prolong the epidemic and damage British exports. Farmers also want a commitment from the government that if retailers refuse to buy meat and dairy products from vaccinated herds they will be compensated.
As vaccination stocks were boosted and the training of volunteers to administer vaccination began yesterday, the NFU's south-west spokesman, Mr Ian Johnson, said there was a lot of "disinformation" about vaccination and local farmers favoured the slaughter policy.
"If they can get on top of it with slaughter why suddenly go for vaccination, there are mixed messages about it," Mr Johnson said.
The Food and Drink Federation expressed its support for the vaccination scheme but only as a "last resort" and on the understanding that meat and dairy products from vaccinated herds did not enter the food chain.
A spokeswoman for the federation said the organisation was concerned about the effect of a vaccination programme on consumer perceptions and exports and feared the scheme could invite further export bans from countries outside the EU. "The foot-and-mouth outbreak has led to substantial losses in the food and drink manufacturing industry and firms have already had to make redundancies," the spokeswoman said. The Tesco supermarket chain said if the Food Standards Agency approved the vaccination scheme, it would agree "in principle" to stock products from vaccinated herds. Nestle, Britain's largest user of milk products, also said it would buy dairy products from vaccinated herds.