Anderson Report: No Reason for Self Congratulation– says CLA

The Government should not forget the immense damage last year's outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease did to the UK sheep industry, particularly in the upland areas – according to the CLA, the rural economy experts.

The comments follow the publication of the Anderson report into the Pirbright FMD outbreak, which says that, on balance, there were more positives than negatives in the government's handling of events.

But CLA president, Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, said it was not all 'good news.'

"It is no exaggeration to say that the consequences of this outbreak dealt a near ruinous blow to our sheep industry. Movement restrictions, a ban on exports and the fact that lambs could not be sold when they should have been and had to be fed over winter and sold late, has seen incomes in the sector slashed by 50% over the course of a single year.

"We have members who are thousands of pounds down in income as a direct result of this outbreak. This was a massive breach of biosecurity at a government-funded institution which could - and should - have been avoided if earlier warnings had been acted on.

The CLA says that the positive points to draw from Dr Anderson's report are his recommendations to establish a National Institute of Infectious Diseases and to create an Independent Advisory Committee on Animal and Emerging Infectious Diseases which the Association supports wholeheartedly.

However, the CLA President said that the report also highlighted the fact that the government had failed to understand the crucial importance of effective communication and management systems and that the:" Ambiguities and wrangling" over departmental leadership needed to be sorted out.

"We also support Dr. Anderson's recommendation that if Defra is constrained by lack of funding then the Prime Minister needs to ensure that the appropriate arrangements are put into place as soon as possible. He needs to understand that when ministers start talking of cost sharing, the industry cannot cope with picking up the bill for diseases it has no control over and which have come about through no fault of its own ," he said.