MAFF have already published guidance, agreed with the veterinary profession, on the biosecurity measures which farmers can take to help protect their animals from infection. Where cattle are not culled they will be subject to regular veterinary patrols. These refinements can be expected to provide some relief from automatic slaughter of cattle. They will not lead to change in the policy of culling of pigs and sheep on contiguous premises. Pigs pose a high disease risk and can spread the virus.
Sheep can carry the disease without showing symptoms, thereby causing further undetected spread.
Following consultation with interested parties, we shall be providing for the special circumstances of rare breeds of sheep and moorland or hefted flocks, based on tight biosecurity coupled with serological testing. Guidance on this will be issued to staff on the ground very shortly. These are complex matters of scientific and veterinary judgement. The new arrangements have to be right, to ensure that they meet real needs, and contribute to rather than hinder disease control. The Government has given serious consideration to a cattle vaccination strategy in North Cumbria and possibly Devon, given the particular issues in those regions, particularly the intensity of infection in certain areas and the forthcoming turnout of cattle from indoor housing to outdoor grazing.