If Britain resorted to vaccination, it wouldn't be able to export animals or animal products for at least this long. And that's not the only problem. The vaccines don't give long-term protection and have to be given up to twice a year. That is expensive. What's more, different vaccines are needed to protect against different strains of the virus.
Vaccination is common in countries where farmers rear livestock for themselves or for local trade.
Other countries use vaccination only to control outbreaks. A vaccination programme wouldn't help Britain start exporting animals again because conventional vaccines consist of inactivated viruses. This makes it difficult to tell a vaccinated animal from one harbouring live virus. But Marvin Grubman and his colleagues at the US Department of Agriculture's secure research facility on Plum Island, New York, are developing a vaccine that will make the job easier. They have inserted the genes that code for the foot and mouth viral coat into live human adenoviruses.