EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 88/268

(2004/C 88 E/0273)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1008/04

by Albert Maat (PPE-DE) and Neil Parish (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 April 2004)

Subject: OIE conference on vaccination against animal diseases

From 13 to 16 April 2004 the OIE will organise an international conference in Buenos Aires on vaccination against animal diseases.

1. Will the European Commission base its contribution to this conference on the report and resolution of the European Parliament's temporary committee on foot-and-mouth disease? If not, what will its contribution be?

2. Is the European Commission, together with the EU Member States, prepared to enforce, within the framework of the OIE, a policy that does not differentiate between protective emergency vaccination (whereby the vaccinated animals are kept alive) on the one hand and suppressive emergency vaccination and/or preventive culling on the other?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(30 April 2004)

The Commission informs the Honourable Members of its participation in and contribution to the International Conference on the Control of Animal Infectious Diseases by Vaccination, held in Buenos Aires on 13 to 16 April 2004.

At the request of the organising committee, the Commission representative is delivering a paper on: The use of antigen and vaccine banks in case of emergency vaccination in the European Community' and was invited to chair the Section on ‘Antigen and vaccine banks as a safety measure for insuring control of disease spread’.

The paper is focused on the integration of emergency vaccination in the complex of measures to be implemented in the case of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). It refers to the needs for contingency planning and explains the Community antigen bank within this context. One of the conclusions should be to raise awareness in countries practicing vaccination that highly purified vaccines and sufficiently sensitive and specific tests for the detection of antibodies against non-structural proteins are essential prerequisites to substantiate any claim for absence of virus circulation following the use of vaccination. In addition, surveillance conducted for that purpose should at least meet the requirements of the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) and should include a thorough follow-up of and decisive actions in relation to herds which had been in contact with the virus.

The Commission contribution is based on Directive 2003/85/EC of 29 September 2003 on Community measures for the control of foot-and-mouth disease (1), which reflects the lessons learned from the 2001 outbreak, the resolution of the Parliament of 13 December 2002 and the conditions for recovery of the disease and infection free status as laid down in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the OIE.

With regard to the differentiation between protective vaccination to live and suppressive vaccination to kill, the Commission wishes to reiterate that the latter is part of a stamping-out procedure applied in infected or contaminated herds. However, where the different strategies are concerned with phasing out protective vaccination, i.e. regaining disease- and infection-free status three months after the slaughter for human consumption of the vaccinated animals as opposed to six months where the vaccinates remain alive, the Commission wishes to draw attention to Article 62 of the above Directive which provides for a derogation from the waiting period in the light of the outcome of the post-vaccination surveillance.

The Commission maintains its position that the internationally accepted requirements for regaining freedom from disease and infection following the resort to emergency vaccination must provide a high level of security. Taking into account the biology of the virus and the epidemiology of the disease, any fast track recovery of disease- and infection-free status may seriously enhance the risk of introducing FMD virus with products of animal origin. In line with the recommendations in the report of the Temporary Committee on FMD of the Parliament, the Commission is bound to minimise such risks while complying with commitments the Community has made in the framework of international trade agreements.

(1) OJ L 306, 22.11.2003.