FORMER agriculture minister Nick Brown says that the Government shied away from vaccination in the FMD crisis because of pressure from the food industry and a consumer group.

He and Government chief vet Jim Scudamore were giving evidence on Tuesday at a meeting of the EU's temporary committee into the foot and mouth outbreak.

When asked why the Government had not embarked on a vaccination programme in March or April last year, Mr Brown explained that elements of the food industry (one example being Cadburys) as well as supermarkets had made it clear that they would not accept milk from animals that had been vaccinated against FMD.

The Scottish Consumers Association wanted separate labelling of products from vaccinated livestock, which would potentially have alarmed and deterred food buyers.

MEP Robert Goodwill, a Terrington farmer, criticised the Government for not standing up to the opposition from the food industry:

"All animals in UK are vaccinated against a wide number of diseases and have been for many decades. There is no evidence that it is in any way harmful and the Government should have stuck resolutely with its own scientific evidence as it has done with other issues such as the MMR triple vaccine for children for example."

Mr Brown confirmed that FMD was present for three weeks and on 50 farms before it was detected.

Updated: 10:16 Thursday, March 28, 2002