Farmers should prioritize inoculating livestock in light of increasing animal epidemics, head of World Organisation for Animal Health tells POLITICO.
Bird flu, swine fever, foot-and-mouth disease: Countries in the European Union should not hesitate to vaccinate farm animals against them, according to Emmanuelle Soubeyran, director general of the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health.
Since last year, the continent has suffered renewed outbreaks of bird flu in poultry, swine fever in pigs, foot-and-mouth disease and bluetongue virus in cows, and ‘peste des petits’ ruminants in sheep and goats. However, when vaccines are available, countries may still not use them, since many foreign partners refuse to import the resulting meat and dairy.
For example, after a decade without a case of the highly contagious FMD, Europe has registered three in the last three months: in Germany in January and Hungary, and in Slovakia in March. Only Slovakia decided to use the emergency vaccines provided by the EU and neighbouring countries, with Germany and Hungary opting for animal lockdowns and tracing.
“What’s important from my point of view is to view vaccination as a tool and to decide to use it according to the economic and epidemiological situation of each country,” the French WOAH chief told POLITICO in an interview. “But we must ensure that brakes that aren’t scientifically justified do not interfere.”
These include trade barriers and certain societies’ suspicion of food from vaccinated animals. The WOAH will tackle both directly this year at its general session in May, which will see high-level talks between countries on the subject of vaccination, including liberalizing restrictions on imports.
“What we really want to [address] are … the brakes on vaccination, be they technical brakes but also political ones,” said Soubeyran, who was elected director last year for a five-year term.
Moreover, the tide may finally be shifting. The United States and Canada recently agreed to loosen restrictions on certain EU poultry imports after accepting the safety of France’s post-2023 mass vaccination of ducks. The French campaign has restored poultry production to its highest in years, prompting the Netherlands to launch a pilot for egg-laying chickens.
By contrast, in the U.S., which is struggling to contain a massive bird flu epidemic, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suggested letting the virus spread through flocks to achieve herd immunity — an idea one leading veterinarian called “crazy.”
A main obstacle to better vaccination remains funding. At the EU level, several agriculture ministers called for more money for disease prevention last week: Portugal even requested an EU vaccine strategy. European lawmakers likewise criticized the Commission in January, when it confirmed it wouldn’t provide cash to combat animal diseases in the coming years.
At the global level, the Trump administration’s aid cuts and withdrawal from the World Health Organization have complicated cooperation and imperiled vaccination campaigns. Soubeyran declined to comment on U.S. contributions to the WOAH, but noted that “when we invest in animal health, we strengthen food security … international trade and the health of everyone.”
