New animal health body is a cover for cost sharing

Defra’s announcement of an independent animal health body is welcome but it must not come with the price tag of cost sharing with the farming industry, Neil Parish MEP, Conservative chairman of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, warned today.

Defra has announced proposals for an independent body that would make decisions over the handling of animal diseases. Its day-to-day operations would be partly funded by a levy on livestock keepers, whilst the costs associated with handling disease outbreaks would be shared between the farming industry and the taxpayer.

Mr Parish said it was right to bring in first hand practical experience of those in the industry to better handle the response to such outbreaks, but he said Defra has ’a bit of a cheek’ to ask farmers to contribute to disease control given their constant dithering over Bovine TB and the fact that the last major animal disease outbreak in the UK - Foot and Mouth disease - was caused by government failings.

Mr Parish said:

"The government should call on independent and experienced advice to prevent and tackle disease outbreaks, but this plan comes with a hefty price tag.

"Defra has a bit of a cheek asking farmers to stump up for disease outbreaks when the last major outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease originated in a government laboratory and the countryside continues to suffer from Defra’s dithering over TB.

"Given the misery already dished out to farmers across the country as a direct result of this government’s failures it will be a real kick in the teeth for the government to now come to them with a bill."