Foot and mouth vaccinations

[johnjo]

Why are farmers so divided over the issue of vaccinations?

[WillSmith]

From the beginning of this fiasco, there has been a solid opposition to vaccination, even though Prof Fred Brown, probably the world's leading authority on foot and mouth, has argued for it from the start. As I write this, Argentina - the biggest meat exporter in the world - is vaccinating its cattle - all 98.5 million of them. Korea beat foot and mouth with vaccination. Many farmers fear that no-one will buy vaccinated meat and that they'll lose out in the end, but now it seems as thoug there may be nothing left to sell anyway, as millions of animals die and rare breeds are extinguished. There have been many misundertandings about vaccaination: that vaccinated cattle have to be slaughtered anyway, that the vaccine doesn't work, that we don't have enough vaccne. This is all untrue.