EFSA says no EU-approved vaccine for sheep and goat pox
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said there are currently no sheep and goat pox (SGP) vaccines approved for use in the European Union, according to a recent scientific report examining outbreaks in Greece and Bulgaria.
EFSA said it was unable to draw reliable conclusions on vaccination strategies in Greece due to data limitations and the inability to apply mathematical spread models under Greek conditions. The authority cited the country’s complex geography and evidence of long-distance animal movements as key obstacles.
As a result, EFSA based its assessment for Greece on descriptive spatio-temporal analysis, identifying 10 epidemic clusters nationwide, and said a quantitative evaluation of vaccination scenarios was not feasible.
EFSA also stressed that it does not assess or recommend veterinary vaccines and highlighted shortcomings in the available scientific evidence on vaccine effectiveness and safety.
