16/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted the report by Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler (PES, Germany) by 409 votes in favour, 10 against and 6 abstentions. The report approves in its broad lines the proposal of directive on Community measures against foot and mouth disease. The EP confirms the position of the relevant committee by placing preventive vaccination at the heart of the system to fight against this epizootic (EUROPE of 10 May, p.14), while specifying the criteria that justify the decision to use vaccination. These are: - the impossibility of eliminating the herds infected within 24 hours; - the impossibility of culling all animals suspected of being contaminated within 48 hours; - and also if it is foreseeable that other methods to fight the disease would cause greater economic harm in this agricultural sector than the use of emergency vaccination.