VACCINATION is set to be the first line of defence in any future outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced on Wednesday that it had awarded a contract to UK veterinary pharmaceuticals distributer Genus Plc to provide emergency vaccination.

Animal Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said: "The Government would consider vaccination immediately in the event of any further outbreak of foot-and-mouth. This contract will ensure the capability will be there if it is decided by the Government that an emergency programme of vaccination can help tackle the outbreak and its consequences."

Under European Union rules, animals on farms infected with the virus, and those which have come into direct contact with them, must still be slaughtered.

But the contract means widespread vaccination could now be effectively deployed in place of the contiguous culling policy, which saw Defra slaughter millions of animals that never had foot-and-mouth during the 2001 crisis.

Cumbria was the worst affected county in the UK with 893 cases. Over the seven months the disease ripped through the county 2,827 farms were subjected to culls and more than one million sheep and 250,000 cattle were slaughtered.

The conclusion of Cumbria's own foot-and-mouth inquiry, national Lessons Learned' inquiry and The Royal Society's scientific investigation was that vaccination should be considered at the outset of any outbreak.

It was something the Government accepted in principal in 2002, and that a vaccinate-to-live policy should be used wherever possible meaning vaccinated animals would not be slaughtered so long as they did not show signs of catching the disease.

During the 2001 crisis, the Government had backed limited vaccinations in foot-and-mouth hotspots like North Cumbria. But the plan was dropped in the face of opposition from the National Farmers' Union.

Former NFU President Sir Ben Gill said that at the time he could not advise his members to accept vaccination without assurances that it would not prolong the crisis by masking the true extent of the disease in cattle. The NFU was also concerned that meat and milk from vaccinated stock would be unsaleable.

This week, NFU spokesman Will Cockbain welcomed the development from Defra but stressed that it did not mean that Defra would definitely vaccinate. Emergency vaccination would be an option and only used if it was justified.

Under the details of the Genus deal, 150 of the UK-based company's vaccination personnel will be operationally ready to undertake a programme of emergency vaccination within five days of any outbreak. They will operate under the direction of the State Veterinary Service and can provide more personnel if required.

Vaccine stocks will not be kept by Genus, instead the Government has some ten million vaccines largely held at Pirbright, Surrey. The UK can also call on another 30 million kept by the EU.

Meanwhile, the Government further bolstered its abilty to deal with big animal disease outbreaks by signing an agreement to share expertise with Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

The agreement, signed in Paris on Monday, provides for the swapping of vets and other specialists like lab diagnosticians to tackle any outbreaks in the six countries.