The target cattle are now in sheds but in May would normally be moved to pasture now being used by sheep. Vaccination would allow them to graze safely. Before the go-ahead was announced, the European commission said movements of any vaccinated cattle would have to be severely restricted for many months. Cattle are tagged and carefully monitored because of BSE, which means they cannot be exported. Sheep, as the foot and mouth outbreak has proved, are more difficult to keep track of.
Vaccination is said to have disastrous consequences for livestock exporters.
They would lose their disease-free status on world markets, since vaccinated animals carry similar antibodies to those infected with the disease. That status is restored three months after the last vaccinated animal is slaughtered, but the EU fears it could take years before its exporters would fully recover from a long-term ban. Senior ministers have decided to ignore a damning report on the government's handling of the crisis by Keith Sumption, a veterinary expert from Edinburgh university. It condemns the mass slaughter policy as ineffective and liable to worsen infection. It recommends emergency inoculation as the only viable means of containing the disease.