Head-to-head: Should we vaccinate?

Vaccination could save cattle in winter quarters

With the foot-and-mouth outbreak continuing, government scientists have supported the "principle" of vaccinating thousands of cattle in winter quarters before they go out to pasture.

Leyland Branfield farms in Little Westcott, Devon, near the site of outbreaks. Like many farmers and the National Farmers' Union (NFU), he has major reservations over vaccination.

Farmer John Findlay has already lost one of his farms in Penrith, Cumbria, and thinks vaccination is the only way to salvage any of his livelihood.

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Leyland Branfield

I'm not sure whether we aren't too late in this vaccine proposal and should have been investigating the possibility a month ago.

My main concerns are making sure that it is efficiently carried out, being able to trade again with the rest of the world once we have adopted a vaccination policy, and just the sheer physical aspect of the job.

We should concentrate our efforts on making a better job of the policy we've got in place

Leyland Branfield

I'm not certain whether the manpower and energy wouldn't be better conducted in making sure we keep the policies we've got up to time and within the government's guidelines.

The problem with vaccination is I'm not certain it's the be-all and end-all of foot-and-mouth.

It is a very complicated thing - the information I've been looking at makes it clear there is no clear-cut answer to the problem.

I'm not certain it is vaccination as we understand it. Even within the human population, we can't vaccinate against flu and kill the flu virus.

We will find ourselves with bigger problems if we vaccinate.

I believe the contiguous policy [of slaughtering animals on adjacent farms to outbreaks] is still one that will work provided we use our energy to get the contiguous [animals] killed quick enough and the carcasses disposed of.

Farmer Leyland Branfield thinks resources should go to the current slaughter

It takes a lot of investigation, not only the worldwide implications but a lot of local and managerial implications.

It's not so easy as saying vaccination will kill it or buy us time.

The first place I visit on the Maff website is the Cumbrian list of holdings - I lived in Cumbria for three years, I know Cumbria quite well and I feel sorry for those men.

The wildlife concern would make the vaccination policy more complicated.

We should concentrate our efforts on making a better job of the policy we've got in place.

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John Findlay

I would say absolutely yes [to vaccination].

My business partner, an uncle, went down with foot-and-mouth at our other farm on Good Friday.

I've lost half my business and I've got to do anything I can to try and save what is left.

If plan A had worked OK, but it is now time to consider plan B

John Findlay

If you are in a sinking ship and somebody throws you a lifeline you are going to grab hold of it with two hands.

It's been like a war zone around here, the stress has been unbelievable, there have been farms going down and we need to do something.

We've been told by senior scientific people that there is another option and that is vaccination.

I know a lot of people are against it, I know the NFU is against it - we've had a lot of time to look into it, why haven't we done it.

What market are we going to have? We are not going to have a market in Cumbria - they are talking about 99% wipe-out of the stock.

Farmer John Findlay sees vaccination as the only lifeline

They now think it may be endemic in the deer population and they are all over the place.

What export market? We are not going to have an export market if this continues the way it has been going on.

The Army have come and they are doing a very good job but there is still a timelag in taking farms out; they are doing that now, but there is a backlog of carcasses.

If plan A had worked OK, but it is now time to consider plan B.