Europe's veterinary experts will tomorrow consider authorising the use of vaccine to counter the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
But the policy is still seen as a last resort and is likely to be rejected for the time being as too drastic and too costly a response to the current outbreak.
Vaccination may seem like a logical counter attack, but it would rule EU meat exports out of markets where the use of vaccine itself would lose Europe its official "disease-free" status.
So far, despite animal health scares, no foot-and-mouth outbreaks have been identified on the continent.
Consumer protection Commissioner Mr David Byrne insisted tonight that the current crisis was still short of epidemic proportions.
"The member states concerned have responded very well, and we are in constant contact with officials in the UK.
"So far we don't have signs of a big epidemic: the signs are that we must be vigilant in relation to this."
Belgium, still on full alert after a foot-and-mouth scare at a farm in Diksmuide at the weekend, has 650,000 doses of vaccine on stand-by.
But any vaccination plan would require approval from the veterinary experts and then the formal go-ahead from EU agriculture ministers first.
Tonight the Commission insisted vaccination remained the last possible option, because of the huge trade and cost implications.
A successful vaccination programme against foot-and-mouth disease ended in 1991.
The move allowed EU member states to export to other countries where imports are only accepted from countries recognised to be free of the disease and which do not follow a vaccination policy.
The Commissioner was speaking tonight at the end of a "high-level" conference on food quality in the wake of concerns that intensive farming methods to meet consumer demands for cheaper food are the root of cause of the current problems.
Representatives from the Tesco supermarket chain, Nestle, and consumer groups will took part in a debate on "the relationship between cheap food and quality".
Agriculture Commissioner Mr Franz Fischler said: "Modern production methods must put consumers first and there has been a fundamental change in the job agriculture is expected to do. We must work with nature, not against it."
After today's talks, the Commission is urging all EU member states to launch conferences on public policy, food quality and production methods.