Dismissing the government timidity and farm leaders' intransigence that stopped plans for limited vaccination in last year's £7bn epidemic, the Royal Society report on infectious diseases in livestock argued strongly that centuries old official reliance on mass culling was now scientifically and socially wanting.

"Five times in 80 years we have not been able to contain this disease. We have to turn to vaccination. There is no other way we can remove the disease in 2002", said Sir Brian Follett, chairman of the £400,000 inquiry which took evidence from 400 organisations and individuals.

The inquiry team of 15, including academics, farmers, and vets, stopped short of recommending that all sheep, cattle and pigs be vaccinated against the disease, but said that if international outbreaks continued to occur then such a strategy should be considered.

Instead, the report called for emergency vaccination from the start of any future outbreak. "[It] offers an alternative control strategy which can avoid extensive culling, is likely to less disruptive to the farming and tourist economies, runs less risk of spread of the virus by the culling operation and can be a more humane approach to disease control", said the report.

But the inquiry did not rule out slaughter. "The rapid culling of infected premises and known dangerous contacts, combined with movement control and rapid diagnosis will remain essential to controlling foot and mouth diseases and most other highly infectious diseases. In many cases, however, this will not be sufficient to guarantee that the outbreak does not develop into an epidemic", it said.

Sir Brian Follett said that the draconian "contiguous culling" policy had proved to be a "blunt instrument" and that better mathematical modelling was needed to accurately assess the potential movement of the disease.

Scorn was also poured on the government's, local authorities' and farmers' insistence last year that vast areas of the countryside should be closed in case walkers or traffic spread the disease. The report also found no scientific evidence to suggest that wildlife could act as a reservoir of infection.

There were widespread calls last year by farmers and others to cull wild boar, deer and birds, all of which were thought to be potentially able spread the disease. The inquiry said that there is still little scientific understanding about how 80% of the disease was spread from farm to farm.

The report was yesterday interpreted as a putdown for Ben Gill, the National Farmers' Union leader who insisted throughout the epidemic that vaccination was inadvisable, and the Food and Drink Federation which lobbied strongly against vaccination in case it upset food manufacturers' export markets.

· The European commission is expected to demand massive fines against France tomorrow for continuing its illegal ban on British beef exports.

The daily fines will need clearance from the European court of justice and under normal procedures it could be months before the penalties bite.