UK govt is not adequately prepared for animal disease outbreaks, PAC warns
6th November 2025
A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned that the UK government is not adequately prepared for the most severe animal disease outbreaks.
Examining national resilience to threats such as avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and bovine TB, the committee established that government would find responding to such outbreaks extremely stretching, with over a quarter of local public services not confident in their outbreak capabilities.
The PAC’s inquiry heard that DEFRA and APHA have worked hard to manage the current five-year-long outbreak of bird flu and the past year’s current outbreak of bluetongue.
However, resources have been diverted away from other work to prepare for future outbreaks by the semi-permanent response mode the government has moved into as a result.
This, as well as the post-Brexit loss of access to the EU’s animal disease intelligence system, has also caused a reduction in vital surveillance to help detect new and re-emerging disease threats quickly and stop their spread.
Another factor limiting the nation’s ability to protect itself is APHA’s struggle to recruit and retain enough vets, with a vacancy rate of 15% in September 2025.
Issues driving the shortage include mental health issues relating to activities, such as culling animals; pay and conditions; and working hours. The PAC’s report calls for a veterinary workforce strategy to be produced in the next year to address the shortage.
Concerns raised
The National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge is critical to the management of threats from animal diseases but is in poor condition, presenting significant interim risks as the facility continues to age, with its c.£2.8 billion redevelopment not set for completion for a decade.
The PAC is calling for a 10-year plan for the Weybridge Centre’s redevelopment, given its strategic importance and the existential risk that a major failure there could pose to an emergency response to an outbreak.
The report further examines the issue of illegally imported meat and finds that border controls to prevent a new disease arriving in the UK as a result are insufficient to address the level of risk.
Dover Port Health Authority currently only receives funding to allow it to complete proactive illegal meat checks 20% of the time. There has been a fifty-five-fold increase in the seizures of illegal meat imports from January 2023 to January 2025, but the government does not know whether this is due to an increase in actual imports or better enforcement.
The report found that DEFRA has no strategy to tackle shortages in animal vaccines, and the PAC recommends that one should be developed over the next year.
The Committee is also concerned about the future efficacy of policy changes for managing bovine TB. The badger cull has now been largely terminated, which the PAC understands has been effective in reducing the disease, but a new cattle vaccine is some years away.
READ MORE: Avian influenza prevention zone will cover all England
‘Government needs to act now’
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The bill for the major foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001 ran into multiple billions for the public and private sector. Serious animal disease outbreaks pose a severe threat to wildlife and the farming sector, and in the case of zoonotic diseases, to human health.
“Our latest report should therefore be of the deepest concern to all of us. Hard work has been done to respond to the current outbreaks of bird flu and, amongst sheep and cattle, bluetongue virus.
“But the necessity for a semi-permanent response to these current outbreaks has pulled government away from vital preparations for future threats – which have to be treated as a matter of when, not if.”
Mr Clifton-Brown added that the government needs to act now to prepare a full strategy to ensure preparedness for such events in the future, and we look forward to the results of Exercise Pegasus and Exercise Aspen this year – two major rehearsals carried out by the government to test preparedness for a zoonotic disease pandemic and a foot-and-mouth outbreak.
“The government must use these exercises to fully evaluate our nation’s preparedness, swiftly address the underlying factors driving the vet vacancy rate, and make sure it has eyes and ears on the ground to detect oncoming threats quickly,” he continued.
The expert added that a similar strategy is required for animal vaccinesa as farmers have been left in a very difficult position with the prospect of bovine TB becoming worse once again, and a new cattle vaccine seemingly years away.
“Government has been strongly focused on the immediate-term threats – it must now develop the bandwidth to look to the long-term as well,” he concluded.
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