Government must deliver on Foot and Mouth disease handling

The NFU has said today that the Government’s acceptance of all 26 of the recommendations made by Sir Iain Anderson in his review of the Government’s overall handling of the 2007 FMD outbreak is good news, provided they ultimately deliver on what they say they are going to do.

NFU President Peter Kendall said: "The response by Government to Sir Iain Anderson’s recommendations are positive in the main, but we need to make sure that the fine words in the response turn in to real action to ensure that we genuinely learn the lessons from the 2007 experience."

Despite acceptance of the recommendations, the NFU remains concerned about the Government’s long term commitment to Research and Development, in particular at the Institute of Animal Health (IAH), and also their commitment to funding improvements to livestock database systems.

"The work undertaken by the IAH is world class and I am extremely impressed by Professor Martin Shirley (Director of IAH) and his team", said Mr Kendall. "This Institute needs and deserves the support of Government and I believe the commitment in today’s response which says that "BBSRC will continue to fund the IAH so that it can continue to provide the nation with world class research facilities that underpin the livestock industry and our food security" should be welcomed. This is critically important and we are concerned by reports that Defra is withdrawing from direct funding of IAH which will in future, we understand, rely solely on funding from BBSRC who will need to bid for funding from various sources. We will monitor developments to ensure this commitment becomes a reality.

"There are a number of recommendations from the Anderson report which relate to the livestock data systems. In any disease outbreak it is critically important that government departments and agencies dealing with the outbreak have up-to-date, accurate data on where animals are kept and on movements that have taken place. Our systems could not provide the necessary accuracy in the 2001 outbreak of FMD or the 2000 outbreak of Classical Swine Fever, and were still inadequate in the 2007 outbreak.

"It is now vital that once and for all Government invests in the livestock data systems to ensure this is put right. We are already involved in discussions with Defra on this issue and we will be looking for a clear strategy from them on how they are going to deliver this in the coming months."