The only markets open to the export of British animals and animal products might be counties in which FMD continues to be endemic. Vaccination is also expensive for the farmer, and does not last for the lifetime of the animal - sensitivity to the virus returns and a 'booster' dose of the vaccine has therefore to be given every six to nine months. There is also a technical consideration concerning vaccination which is often overlooked in the pro-anti vaccination debate. The virus has a strategy against our attempts to defeat it. It keeps changing the way it looks to the animal's immune system - a process known as mutation.
Strains repeatedly arise against which the current vaccines are less effective or ineffective.
Viruses of the FMDV type are particularly efficient at doing this. The regulations governing this follow guidelines laid down according to the advice given by the World Organisation for Animal Health and are complex. Different situations and differing vaccination regimes are subject to different rulings. Our experience has been that the precise interpretation of these regulations differ subtly between different agencies. We cannot take responsibility for being wrong if we have misunderstood the situation.