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September 15 ~ a "five day delay after a decision is taken to vaccinate because the "vaccinators" have to be away from susceptible livestock for five days before they can handle animals to be vaccinated" -utter confusion reigns

DEFRA has said, it seems, that there must be this delay of five days before the vaccination teams (on stand-by) can move in "because the "vaccinators" have to be away from susceptible livestock for five days before they can handle animals" . This is simply nonsense.
In 2004 Genus Plc was given the contract to provide emergency vaccination in the event of a a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain. We read at www.htspe.com
"....Genus Plc. will provide the emergency vaccination resource in the event of a future Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak. This requires the provision of a mobile vaccination resource that will be available 5 days from outbreak confirmation. Vaccination teams (up to 500 trained staff) will move to the infected area and vaccinate susceptible animals on holdings identfied within a 10km radius. We have two states of operation: standby (no outbreak) and implementation (commencement of vaccination operations).
So possibly someone at DEFRA is confusing this odd but decided 5 day wait at the start of an outbreak (ie 4th August) with its unfortunate continuation (12 September) The whole point of vaccination is that the vaccinated animals quickly become non-distributors. The teams would be vaccinating all the relevant animals on a farm. Vaccinators are not going to be the same personnel as those who visit farms to look for infected animals or take part in the culling procedures on the infected farms. And even if they were - wild, infectious virus - even if actually present on that very farm - even if on the boot of a vaccinator - would subsequently meet a dead end.
It's hard to know what more one can say. As for sanity, Lawrence Wright from a sheep farm in Devon wrote just now:
"What on earth is this about anyway? Practically any livestock keeper would be quite capable of administering a vaccination to their animals. If my vet were to advise me to vaccinate my animals, he would hand me the vaccine and a suitable syringe. Why would I need a team of outsiders to do the job I could do perfectly well myself?"
 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

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