Rural Affairs
Region’s farmers may miss out on bluetongue vaccine
THE region's livestock farmers
could miss out on the 22.5m doses
of bluetongue vaccine the Government
has ordered, it was
claimed yesterday.
A 70-strong meeting of beef
and sheep farmers in Hexham
mart was told there will not be
enough to go around.
But they were urged to place
orders with their vets to pressurise
the Government into ordering
up to nine million more
doses which may be needed for
the North.
Peter Morris, chief executive of
the National Sheep Association
(NSA), said the current order involved
22m doses for England
and 2.5m for Wales.
The hope was that the disease
would be contained in the South
of England, but it depends on the
vaccine taking effect before the
reappearance of the midges that
spread it.
The vaccinations will first take
place in the protection zone closest
to the disease.
Mr Morris told northern producers
at Thursday night's meeting:
"You are further away from
the disease, lucky you. You are
also further away from the vaccine,
unlucky you - 22m doses
will probably not stretch this far."
Mr Morris, one of the six-member
core group advising the Government
on the disease, said the
voluntary vaccination programme
was the best method.
But he said it required an
"unprecedented" uptake from
farmers.
There had never been such a
large-scale voluntary approach
to tackling an animal disease.
Chris Dodds, secretary of the
Livestock Auctioneers Association
(LAA) and fellow member of
the core group, said they had
asked ministers for more vaccine.
He said: "We have pressed them
to order another eight million to
nine million doses and they have
said they will if there is evidence
that farmers will use it. In reality,
I believe we are all going to vaccinate
because, economically, we
do not have a choice."
He urged farmers to contact all
their neighbours, urging them to
place vaccine orders with their
vets. He said: "If we can get evidence
that there is the need for
that eight to nine million doses,
Defra will order it, but we genuinely
need you guys in the
North to do this."
The vaccine will be available in
50ml and 20ml bottles. Official
figures show the wholesale price
will be £22.02 per 50ml bottle and
£13.10 for the smaller amount.
Mr Morris said the on-farm
price will be £27.50 to £33 for the
50ml bottles - 55p-65p per dose -
and £16.35 to £19.65 for the 20ml
bottles - 82p-98p per dose.
Sheep will need one annual
1ml dose and cattle two doses
about three weeks apart.
The vaccine presents no food
safety issues and no risk to
human health.
8:25am Saturday 22nd March 2008
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