Report prompted update to FMD strategy, says CVO

A National Audit Office (NAO) report that slammed current disease outbreak preparations prompted Defra to update its foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) control strategy, the UK’s CVO has admitted.

Defra said the updated strategy will enhance the UK’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to an FMD outbreak, and it precedes an exercise that will be held later this year to test Government preparedness.

The update launched amid a plea for British holidaymakers not to bring back meat and dairy products from Europe following cases discovered on the continent in recent months.

‘Significant gaps’

Last month, the NAO reported “significant gaps” in Defra’s outbreak contingency plans and that it lacked a comprehensive livestock movement tracing system.

UK CVO Christine Middlemiss said the report also noted “the strategy hadn’t been updated since 2011, so we have done that”.

She added: “We welcome the report.

“I think it’s fair to say that we’ve been busy with avian influenza, and so it has given us renewed focus to pick up those gaps that we felt we had in our foot-and-mouth preparation. The control strategy is one of those.”

Weybridge

Dr Middlemiss also highlighted the development of the new National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge and the Livestock Information Transformation Programme, a multispecies, digital traceability system she said will provide critical, real-time tracking information.

She said Defra is “absolutely prepared and will respond to the first case and the next cases” in the event of an outbreak, but a more severe incident would prove problematic.

She added: “It would be true to say that while we’re not expecting an outbreak anything like the size or scale of 2001, because of many of the processes and controls we’ve put in place, a large outbreak with tens of infected premises –particularly scattered around the country – would stretch us, for sure.”

‘Upscaling resources’

Dr Middlemiss said that in the event of such an outbreak, “we have a number of ways of upscaling our resources,” such as expanded testing capabilities and bringing in more veterinary support from within the UK and partners around the world.

She added Defra has been refreshing and updating contracts with suppliers they “hope [to] never have to invoke”, to ensure a fast response should the need arise.

Dr Middlemiss argued that most of the control strategy updates have been around legislation, with the UK having left the EU since it was last changed in 2011, and it had been updated it in that context.

Key pillars

However, she added: “The key pillars of disease control remain the same. You want to prevent it coming in, you want to detect it early when you’ve got it, and then you want to go in hard and really stamp it out.”

Defra banned personal imports of meat and dairy products from several European countries earlier this year after FMD cases were found, culminating in an EU-wide ban in April.

Dr Middlemiss said FMD is “so infectious” and “so massively impactful” that Germany estimates a single outbreak on a farm of 20 water buffalo cost the country around €1 billion.

‘Play our part’

She added: “That’s why it’s important that we all play our part within the public.

“People going on holiday to Europe: have a lovely time when you’re there, but please don’t bring back any meat or dairy products with you, because of that potential risk they pose.”

A special Vet Times Podcast with Christine Middlemiss on this issue is available now here.