Brussels, 08/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - With its adoption on Tuesday 7 February of the report by Janusz Wojciechowski (ECR, Poland) on new rules for vaccination of ruminants against bluetongue disease, the European Parliament agriculture committee approved the Council first reading position on the amendments to be brought to Directive 2000/75/EC on this animal disease (see EUROPE 10517).
The new rules will make it possible to use “inactivated vaccines” also outside areas where animal movement is subject to restrictions because of recent occurrence of the disease. Use of this kind of vaccine in the vaccination campaign in 2008 and 2009 considerably improved the health situation. Unlike previous “attenuated live vaccines”, the new vaccines do not pose any threat of transmitting bluetongue to unvaccinated animals.
The European Parliament will vote on this text in plenary session on 14 February. If approved, the directive will come into force the day after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Member states will then have up to six months to incorporate the new rules into their national laws. (LC/transl.rt)