Brussels, 04/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU's Standing Veterinary Committee has confirmed the relaxation of precautionary measures imposed on France to curb the spread of the foot-and-mouth disease. There have been no new outbreaks, and the embargo on untreated French livestock products was partially lifted on Tuesday at midnight. The ban on all despatches of fresh meat and meat products, milk and dairy products as well as other animal by-products sensitive to the disease is now restricted to regions of the Seine et Marne, Seine Saint Denis and Val d'Oise (Parisian region). The veterinary experts also accepted the Commission's proposal to extend emergency vaccination to the Netherlands, in conformity with the programme presented by the Dutch authorities. In addition to the "suppressive" vaccination that they are already carrying out quite lawfully (vaccination of suspect animals in a two-kilometer radius around the centre of a foot-and-mouth outbreak, pending the slaughter and the incineration of animals), the Netherlands will now be authorised to implement a "preventive" vaccination programme similar to that accepted last week for the United Kingdom. The programme will be delimited to the Oene region and will include the obligation to mention the vaccination on the animals' identification papers. Restrictions to the movements of vaccinated animals would consist in a ban on travelling out of the vaccination area for one year after the appearance of the last outbreak in that region. The milk and the meat from these animals could be used subject to specific treatment allowing the virus of the foot-and-mouth disease to be destroyed (pasteurisation for milk, meat maturing).
If the Netherlands resorts to this possibility of preventive vaccination, it will be under the obligation to inform the other Member States and the Commission of the arrangements for the vaccination campaign envisaged giving details of the precise delimitation of the area where vaccination will be carried out.