Minister for Defra, Victoria Prentis is quoted recently as describing the Department's plans for biosecurity as a 'top priority' to protect consumers, and reassure trading partners of UK standards of animal and plant health.
She said:
Biosecurity remains a top priority for the Government, not only to protect consumers, but also to ensure that trading partners and industry have strong assurance of the UK's standards of food safety, animal and plant health.
On 16 February 2022, the Government also announced the allocation of £200 million for a programme of investment into world-leading research facilities to boost the UK’s fight against zoonotic diseases, including avian flu and bovine tuberculosis. The money will be spent on a state-of-the-art revamp of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) scientific laboratories at Weybridge – enhancing the UK’s already world-leading scientific and veterinary capability.
An extract from that paper explains:
During 2019, the overall EU proportion of cattle herds infected with, or positive for, TB remained very low (0.8%, which was 16,420 out of 1,961,990 herds).
Fourteen MS reported no case of TB in cattle (Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden).
TB in bovine animals was reported by 14 MS and was heterogeneous and much spatially clustered with herd prevalence ranging from absence to 11.7% within the United Kingdom in England.
At least we are 'world leading' at something.
So as imports pour into our increasingly forested, re-wilded and concreted country, via hastily concocted trade deals from areas of the world where 'standards' are debateable and exotic diseases rife, Ms Prentis’s world leading facility will certainly be needed in the future.