Some commonly sourced farm disinfectants used for diseases such as bovine TB have been suspended by the government following a review.
Changes have been made to the list of approved disinfectants, resulting in the suspension of products such as FAM 30, Virkon LSP and Novagen FP.
A Defra-approved disinfectant meets specific criteria demonstrating efficacy in specific disease situations, governed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
If there is a notifiable disease outbreak, by law a Defra-approved disinfectant must be used at the correct concentration and dilution rate for the specific disease.
The government has given no reason why it has made changes to the approved disinfectants.
The laws on disinfectant use are called disease orders, such as Tuberculosis Order, Disease of poultry Order, Foot & Mouth Disease order and Diseases of Swine Regulations 2014.
While the disinfectants are suspended, they are no longer approved for the use of statutory disease control.
Use of these must therefore stop, and an alternative disinfectant should be selected from the Defra approved disinfectant list.
Suspended disinfectants may be re-listed, and will be updated on the approved disinfectant list.
What are the changes?
For general orders:
From 7 February – Virkon LSP was suspended from the approved disinfectant list.
A general order is issued to control an outbreak of notifiable disease. For example, Defra could order approved disinfectants to be used to control an outbreak of bluetongue.
For Tuberculosis Order:
From 16 February – Novagen F.P and Virkon LSP were suspended from the approved disinfectant list.
From 18 March – FAM 30 was relisted on the approved disinfectant list with a higher concentration.
For the Disease of Poultry Order:
From 20 February – FAM 30 and Virkon LSP were suspended from the approved disinfectant list.
