Your Say

11/09/2007

Foot and Mouth outbreak was a 'self-inflicted wound'

UK Government has some serious questions to answer

The Foot and Mouth outbreak in Surrey could and should have been avoided, says Conservative MEP for Wales Jonathan Evans.

The Conservatives will be asking the European Commission, reporting on Foot and Mouth in the UK tomorrow (Wednesday), to comment on the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) continuing as a European Community reference laboratory for Foot and Mouth, bluetongue and Swine Vesicular Disease, given the biosecurity breaches that were allowed to occur at Pirbright in Surrey last month.
Earlier this year, Professor Martin Shirley of the IAH told MPs he was trying to run a Rolls Royce service, but was being "funded at the level of a Ford Cortina".

UK farmers, Mr Evans said, deserve targeted compensation from the Government and a full in-depth investigation into who was warned about biosecurity concerns and who ignored them.
He said:"The Foot and Mouth outbreak appears to have been a self-inflicted wound.

"The Institute for Animal Health recently said it was trying to run a Rolls Royce service funded at the level of a Ford Cortina. How could such an important global facility become so poorly maintained?

"If people have been reporting concerns about biosecurity at the plant and they have been ignored, whoever ignored them should be brought to account. We also need to know whether any Ministers ever knew about the biosecurity concerns and what action they ordered.

"The European Commission relies on Pirbright as an EU reference laboratory and I imagine they would be horrified to hear the levels of biosecurity there were so poor.

"The government's reaction to this outbreak was considered to be adequate, but once again it seems penny-pinching has resulted in significant hardship for British farmers. Farmers deserve compensation for the loss of earnings, inconvenience and distress that could and should have been avoided."

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