http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/debate/letters/article2525010.ece
From The Times
September 25, 2007
The Government must listen to the specialists
Sir, Those of us who have a professional interest in viral disease have
watched the events unfold since early August with a terrible fear of déjà vu (report, Sept 24). This fear is now realised.
Putting aside the mechanisms that have allowed foot and mouth into the Surrey
countryside, which are subject to inquiry, I and my colleagues have a real
concern that at every level - diagnosis, tracing and containment - once again
the handling of this infection has been an illustration of a woeful lack of
understanding within Defra of viral disease. As a result, once again, there has
been unnecessary destruction of life and livelihoods.
If we had started a thorough ring vaccination programme on August 10, when
the onset of infection in the second affected herd was obviously so sudden that
a large amount of virus was now within the countryside, the outbreaks in other
herds would not have occurred. Defra's lack of policy applies also to bluetongue
serotype 8 which has arrived in Suffolk but has been an expected threat to the
UK for at least 12 months. If discussions with vaccine manufacturers had taken
place at that time indicating a willingness to vaccinate against this disease,
they would have encouraged vaccine development and farming stock would be
protected.
It is quite extraordinary to report that there are no virologists within
Defra. This is contrary to a reply given to the Countess of Mar's question in
the House of Lords when the Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer (DCVO) replied that
there were more than 100.
There is a lack of understanding within the vet labs'
scientists of the mechanisms of clinical containment of viral disease.
Vaccination of the susceptible population so that more than 70 per cent were so
protected would ensure that the disease died out.
There is a failure to use newer techniques of nucleic acid amplification
(RT-PCR) to detect the virus in pre-clinical stages in animals. This is a much
more sensitive surveillance than veterinary clinical inspection or the penside
crude antigen test that has been made for the Third World which Defra has
sanctioned although it is of unverified sensitivity.
It may be helpful to the Prime Minister's Cobra group to read Mary
Critchley's voluntary website www.warmwell.com, to which a number of us contribute. The group
should invite the most informed virologists with clinical experience to join
their team and formulate sensible policies to contain this disease.
At the same time it needs to lobby the EU to change the rules about
vaccinated stock. These rules take no account of the virological science and so
create a bias against vaccination. This no-vaccination view is promoted by a few
exporters for short-term reasons. The British are subscribing to EU rules that
virologists and informed vets consider to be ill-informed. It would be better to
solve the problem with good science and then lobby for change in Brussels. A
lack of coherent virological advice from the CVO and DCVO makes matters worse.
Here is a way for Cobra to gain clinical advice and formulate sensible
policies. Defra must be encouraged (forced?) to collect clinical advice from
outside the citadel walls. Its present activity is an absolute travesty.
DR COLIN G. FINK, Micropathology Ltd Coventry
Fields of Fire witness accounts of 2001