Food safetyU.K. tightens animal disease surveillance

The U.K. Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) has introduced a new surveillance system to detect new and re-emerging animal disease threats in England and Wales. The new system is expected to improve the geographical and species-specific coverage of disease.

Rupert Hine, AHVLA’s head of veterinary surveillance, said that “the current surveillance system has a good history of detecting disease threats such as the first cases of Schmallenberg and bluetongue, but we know improvements can be made to give us better coverage across England and Wales.”

The new model is expected to improve the effectiveness of surveillance by utilizing the expertise of private veterinarians, universities, and the livestock industry. Some centers within the existing AHVLA veterinary network will be retained and others will cease operations.

Farmers Weekly reports that the new system will rely more on private sector laboratories for gathering surveillance intelligence and less on government laboratories. Currently, a large number of post-mortem examinations are carried out in the poultry sector, and some private veterinarians perform exams on private farms. The AHVLA believes that incorporating private sources of intelligence will provide a more comprehensive picture of emerging animal disease threats than relying exclusively on government laboratories.

AHVLA will continue to conduct post-mortem exams at seven AHVLA investigation centers across England and Wales — Bury St Edmunds, Carmarthen, Penrith, Shrewsbury, Starcross, Thirsk and, until 2015, Winchester. Seven other AHVLA investigation centers will cease operations, but access to post-mortem examination services will be improved through private sector partners.

To aid with the transition of the new system, a carcass collection service will operate for a three-year period while the network of private examination centers is established. The carcass collection service will serve areas in which AHVLA centers no longer exist. Livestock keepers will continue to be responsible for transporting carcasses to collection points, and AHVLA will cover the cost of transporting the carcasses to post-mortem centers. The collection service will ensure that surveillance information from areas without AHVLA investigation centers will remain available.

The U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) farm minister, George Eustice, affirms that, “detection of new diseases and improving our resilience to them is a key part of safeguarding animal health. It is a responsibility shared by the farming industry and government, and I fully support this vision of partnership working, sharing skills and expertise to manage disease risk and support our livestock farming industry.”

The new system will be implemented progressively during 2014. Neither DEFRA nor AHVLA have released information on how the new system will affect the agency’s operating cost.