In accordance with the strategy for rolling out vaccination across England, which has been developed with a core group of industry stakeholders, the protection zone is being expanded at regular intervals over the summer, enabling vaccination to take place on a progressive basis. The strategy, which splits England into priority areas, is designed to be flexible, taking into account the delivery of vaccine, take-up in the existing protection zone, epidemiological information and the location of new disease, when it recurs. The strategy is available on the DEFRA website.
So far, over nine million doses of vaccine have been made available and the protection zone has been expanded accordingly. Initial indications suggest a good response to the availability of vaccine, and the take-up of vaccine is high.
[holding answer 13 June 2008]: In accordance with the strategy for rolling out vaccination across England, which has been developed with a core group of industry stakeholders, the protection zone will be expanded at regular intervals over the summer, enabling vaccination to take place on a progressive basis. The strategy, which splits England into priority areas, is designed to be flexible, taking into account the delivery of vaccine, take-up in the existing protection zone, epidemiological information and the location of new disease, when it recurs.
Under the order with Intervet, vaccine will arrive in regular deliveries until the end of August. Intervet is currently ahead of schedule. We cannot specify at this stage when vaccination will be rolled out into Cumbria. However, on 11 June, we announced that we are placing an order with Merial for 13 million doses, eight million for England and five million for Wales. Merial anticipate delivering vaccine in regular batches over the summer, which, alongside DEFRA's existing contract with Intervet, will ensure that sufficient doses are available for vaccination to be rolled out across England and Wales by September.