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BRITAIN must get over its reluctance to “ring vaccinate” livestock or risk repeating the carnage of the foot and mouth outbreak that crippled the countryside in 2001. So says a report from the Royal Society, the country’s top academy of science.

The British government refused to employ the controversial strategy last year as it slaughtered its way through 6 million cows, sheep and pigs in an attempt to bring that epidemic under control. But vaccination, never before used in Britain, should be “a major tool of first resort” in the future, the scientists say.

Their recommendation comes in a report…

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