To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what consideration he has given to the merits of putting operational arrangements in place to implement an emergency vaccination programme in the event of a classical swine fever outbreak. (182178)

[holding answer 25 January 2008]: Although currently available vaccines for classical swine fever (CSF) are able to reduce mortality, it is likely that some vaccinated pigs would still be capable of transmitting the disease if they became infected, but would not display symptoms of disease. This would increase the time taken to detect and eradicate the virus.

In the event of an outbreak, swift detection and culling of infected herds is a more effective and efficient approach. Vaccination could use up resources and reduce our ability to achieve that objective. Therefore, there are currently no operational arrangements in place to mount a CSF vaccination programme, although we keep our policy on CSF vaccination under review in the light of scientific developments in vaccines.