EU rejects virus vaccination plan

European Union agriculture ministers have rejected calls for a vaccination campaign to fight foot-and-mouth disease. They have insisted the current policy of isolating the disease by destroying animals suspected of having the virus and restricting livestock movements is the best way of containing the outbreak. France, which has recorded the only confirmed case in Europe outside the UK, is confident the policy has worked for its farmers. EU officials said that any vaccination campaign would cost all member nations their current "foot-and-mouth-free" status in world trade markets. Experts also pointed out that vaccinations were not 100 percent effective and could hinder tracking of the disease since vaccinated animals carry the same antibodies as those infected. "Vaccination sounds like the right strategy until you examine what it really means," Britain's agriculture minister Nick Brown said. "It isn't the easy option that it might first appear." However, the EU said they would give further study to the possibility of using vaccinations as a last resort in case the disease develops into a wider epidemic. EU veterinary experts are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to review the EU's containment measures which have severely restricted animal movements, banning exports from Britain and France, closing all livestock markets across the 15-nation bloc and allowing transport to slaughterhouse only under tight controls. "I can't rule it out, but it would be a substantial retreat," Brown said. He assured his EU colleagues Britain was doing all it could to stop the outbreak from spreading abroad, but warned it could be months before the disease is eradicated in Britain.