The government's cull policy used to combat last year's foot and mouth outbreak was "barbaric conduct" and "a disgrace" to humanity, an EU inquiry heard yesterday.

Eight scientific experts told the inquiry that vaccination must be used in any future epidemic.

Forum Response: RSPCA

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA told ePolitix.com: "The RSPCA was one of the first organisations to publicly criticise the policy of slaughtering animals with no proven link to the disease. The Society wrote to MAFF insisting that a contiguous cull was a step too far and calling for risk assessments to be done rather than carry out speculative slaughter of sheep or cattle with no proven link to the disease. The RSPCA also expressed concerns that that mass culls might have detracted staff from dealing promptly with infected stock."This crisis reinforced the Society's belief that we must have a far more effective system in place to record the movement of sheep. The current system clearly hasn't worked. What we need to see in the future is a system where individual sheep can be traced to minimise the risk of disease spreading."The arguments for and against vaccination are complex. There needs to be a sensible and informed debate on the issue and it is vital that animal welfare should be the over-riding consideration in that debate, well ahead of any financial implications."

Forum Response: Countryside Alliance

Richard Burge, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, told ePolitix.com, "I am not surprised by the findings of the EU Foot and Mouth Disease inquiry, as the Alliance was one of the loudest voices condemning the contigious cull policy during the epidemic last year.

"We remain adamant that the disease's spread was the fault of industrial farming which should not be the norm any longer. In fact we are currently planning our first ever British Food Fortnight which is set to take place in October and November this year. The event is part of the national calendar and is designed to raise awareness of the importance of 'buying British' and also of buying locally.

"It is crucial that we understand why FMD took such a hold last year, and once we have done that we will be better placed to ensure that it never happens again. By supporting local food producers and being better informed about where their food comes from the public can play a huge part in helping the farming sector back onto its feet".

Forum Response: British Retail Consortium

Bill Moyes, director general of the British Retail Consortium, told ePolitix.com: "Retailers have never opposed a vaccination policy. The government asked for our opinion and we responded that any vaccination would need the support of government to communicate clearly to consumers that vaccinated meat and dairy products were safe to eat.

"We did not want to create a two-tier product, which made a distinction between vaccinated and non-vaccinated meat and dairy products.

"We made clear to the government that we are a consumer-driven industry and that as long as our customers were happy to purchase vaccinated meat we would stock it."

Forum Response: National Office for Animal Health

Phil Sketchley, chief executive of the National Office of Animal Health, told ePolitix.com: "Vaccination can be an effective option to control Foot & Mouth Disease, if the circumstances are appropriate. However, with the 2001 UK outbreak, culling would still have been inevitable.

"In the Netherlands, where vaccination was successfully used to contain the disease, the Dutch were required by EU law to cull all vaccinated animals."