This is how present policy is explained to consumers of livestock products. By not vaccinating our livestock since 1991, we now have a livestock population that has become na ve. Now that the virus has appeared in the Netherlands, there is panic. Transportation of animals has been banned and then lifted for animal welfare reasons only to be banned again when the threat becomes more urgent. The air is full of political wrangling.
Political parties try to use the chaotic situation for their own interests.
The Minister of Agriculture tries to place the vaccination policy on the European agenda and is despised when his colleagues do not want to listen to him. There is a virus. It is one of the most contagious viruses. This virus can maintain itself in apparently healthy carriers for a long time. In an animal population that has never been in contact with it or the vaccine-virus it can spread rapidly.