Brussels, 05/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - In order to combat foot-and-mouth disease in Turkey and protect the Community herd against this highly contagious viral disease of grazing animals and pigs, the Commission has decided to provide Turkey with 1.3 million doses of trivalent vaccine (composed of three different antigens). The first batch, sent on Tuesday 5 September, will be followed by a second on 12 September. In so doing, the Commission answers Turkey's appeal for help in combating an exotic strain of the disease (ASIA I), which appeared in cattle in the Thrace region.
The vaccine, that the Union (like the Balkans) only administers to animals in the case of emergency, will be taken from Community reserves of anti-foot-and-mouth antigens in different places in three Member States: France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Two hundred thousand doses still available will be kept in reserve for emergency vaccinations in other regions of the Balkans should the epidemiological situation there make it necessary.
In total, the Union manages a bank of around 30 million doses of vaccine products from different viral strains of the foot-and-mouth disease, a disease that presents no danger for human health but, in animals, can have severe economic consequences as it immediately entails international trade restrictions on cattle and on products such as fresh meat, milk and certain dairy products from the affected country.
This provision of vaccines for Turkey comes in the wake of the authorisation given by the representatives of Member States, who met within the Standing Veterinary Committee on 19 July, to the Commission's proposal.