Foot and mouth vaccine to end mass cattle culls

摘要

Smouldering pyres of cattle sacrificed to halt foot and mouth disease could be consigned to history, thanks to a new vaccine. The vaccine allows testers to distinguish between cattle that have the virus and those that have been vaccinated. During an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001, the UK government elected to slaughter 6 million animals at a cost of ￡8 billion rather than use a vaccine to contain the disease.