UK is 'not prepared for animal diseases'

THE UK Government is not properly prepared for the growing risk from animal diseases and would struggle to cope with a major outbreak, the spending watchdog has warned.

- EMILY BEAMENT

Animal diseases such as bird flu, bluetongue and African swine fever can pose serious threats to the farming sector, food security, human health and wildlife, and costs associated with an outbreak can spiral into the billions of pounds, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has said.

While farming is devolved, any major disease outbreak in England would likely also have a major impact here in Wales.

The 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease cost an estimated £13.8bn in today's prices, with farming businesses devastated, thousands of animals slaughtered and the countryside shut to recreation and tourism.

And 7.2 million birds have been culled in avian flu outbreaks since 2020, which have also devastated wild seabird colonies across the UK.