DEPARTMENT FOR
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS News Release (131/08) issued by
The Government News Network on 7 May 2008
Defra has today
issued a tender for 13 million additional doses of Bluetongue
vaccine, eight million for use in England and five million for use
in Wales.
Under EU law, vaccination is only allowed in a Protection Zone.
The Bluetongue vaccination plan sets out how vaccination will be
rolled out and the Protection Zone expanded county by county
across England, taking into account the availability of vaccine
and the level of disease risk.
To that end, last year we ordered 22.5m doses of vaccine from
Intervet. The first three million doses of that order were
released into the Protection Zones last week, well ahead of
schedule. Initial indications would suggest a high response to
the early availability of vaccine and that take-up of vaccine is high.
Further batches of vaccine are being delivered by Intervet, and
we will expand the Protection Zones accordingly as soon as that
vaccine is available. However, in order to ensure that sufficient
doses are available for vaccination to be fully rolled out across
the whole country, an order for additional vaccine is required.
Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn said:
"I am pleased with the very high demand for vaccine in the
first week of vaccination. The farming industry faces a real
threat from Bluetongue. The best way for farmers to protect their
animals and their pockets is to vaccinate all susceptible animals.
"By underwriting a further order for vaccine, I am giving
farmers across the whole of England the clearest signal that there
will be vaccine available as we roll out the vaccination campaign
county by county. I want the whole industry to engage with this
over the weeks and months ahead".
Public enquiries 08459 335577;
Press notices are available on
our website
http://www.defra.gov.uk
Defra's aim is sustainable development
To subscribe or unsubscribe to Defra's mailing list go to:
http://nds.coi.gov.uk
Once on the NDS website see Sign up
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR
Website http://www.defra.gov.uk