FARMERS in the North-East have added their support to calls for a foot-and-mouth vaccination programme.

They welcomed last night's promise by Agriculture Minister Nick Brown that he would consult with farmers before pressing ahead with a limited programme of vaccinations for cattle in disease hotspots.

He confirmed that ministers were looking at proposals by Government scientists to innoculate cattle currently overwintering in barns before they are moved out to spring pastures.

Pat Walker, secretary of the North Yorkshire Smallholders Society, urged the Government to introduce a voluntary vaccination programme.

She said many of her members had rare breeds which had been culled, despite none of them contracting the virus.

She said: "It really is disgraceful that no allowance has been made for these rare breeds. There is an appeals system, but it is virtually impossible to win one, and we are losing far too many healthy animals.

"My members will even pay for the vaccines and administer it themselves, so you would not need a vet there."

Rare breeds which have suffered include Ryeland, Wensleydale, South Down and Shetland sheep, and Dexter cattle.

She said one worried smallholder near Danby Wiske, Northallerton, where there have been several confirmed cases, keeps Tamworth pigs, a breed with only 177 sows in the world.

Mrs Walker also questioned the legality of culling healthy animals on farms next to confirmed cases and has written to the House of Commons asking when the law was passed.

Alan Harland, who owns 50 beef shorthorn cattle at Crabtree Farm, Carlton-in-Cleveland, near Stokesley, added his voice to the calls for a vaccination programme.

He said: "We are organic farmers and we have got rare breed cattle which we do not want to lose.

"I think there is a lot of feeling now among farmers in the North of England pushing for vaccinations.

"And I have had a lot of information from a research centre which explains why we should vaccinate."

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