Industry doubts England’s ability to deal with animal disease outbreaks

The new report by the National Audit Office examines whether DEFRA, working with key public and private bodies, is taking effective action to ensure England is resilient to animal diseases.

NAO scrutinises public spending for Parliament and is independent of government and the civil service. Through its work, it provides information to Parliament to hold the government to account.

The review has found that past outbreaks have had significant economic impacts. For example, the major foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001 cost the public and private sectors an estimated £5.2 billion and £8.6 billion, respectively (in 2023-24 prices).

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have resulted in 7.2 million birds being culled between November 2020 and mid-March 2025.

DEFRA has reported outbreaks in 16 of the past 20 years. This includes the UK’s largest HPAI outbreak to date, in winter 2022/23, and concurrent outbreaks of HPAI and bluetongue virus (BTV) in 2024 and 2025. Government and industry are also concerned about other exotic diseases such as African swine fever, which is spreading in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

According to the audit findings, DEFRA has an effective strategic approach to managing animal diseases, both exotic and endemic.

The National Audit Office has also confirmed that DEFRA, the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) and key public and private bodies are taking appropriate action to prepare for animal disease outbreaks.

However, it is likely that they would struggle to cope with a more severe outbreak of animal disease.

Long-term resilience has been undermined by the necessity of focusing on increasingly frequent outbreaks, and there is no long-term strategy.

Factors such as climate change and antimicrobial resistance mean outbreaks are increasingly frequent and livestock more vulnerable, but the government lacks a strategy and action plan for improving resilience to animal diseases, the report finds.

DEFRA and APHA have introduced initiatives to strengthen resilience, such as the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which provides funding to support improvements in animal health on farms and research and innovation to improve detection and response to disease.

However, progress is being undermined by global issues with the supply of animal vaccines and significant threats to biosecurity at the border.

DEFRA’s best estimate for the proportion of live animal imports from the EU and the rest of the world currently undergoing physical checks is 5%, against a government target of 100% at border control posts by the end of 2024.

‘Wake-up call’

Tony Goodger, head of communications at the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS), said that the NAO’s report must act as a “wake-up call” to both government and the wider public to ensure that England is safe from animal disease.

Mr Goodger added: “This begins at the border, where, for too long, we have seen a strain on the systems for checking vehicles, be they commercial or private, entering the country.

“We of course welcome the recent announcement to ban the personal import of meat and dairy products, but given the threats that they carry, it is essential that the government communicates this to the public as they prepare to travel abroad and then to return home.”

The AIMS expert suggested that the government’s online ‘travel abroad’ page could remind people of the ban.

Mr Goodger continued: “Our best defence against animal diseases begins with educating the country about the risks.

“The UK’s next best defence is to ensure that those groups and individuals who seem to think that they are serving a need by breaking into farms and abattoirs are stopped at every opportunity and speedily dealt with by the courts. They, in my opinion, pose a huge biosecurity risk to livestock farming and food processing, both of which are within the UK’s defined areas of critical national infrastructure.”

Mr Goodger concluded: “We must be prepared for outbreaks of animal disease, especially as they place such a financial burden on the country and sectors such as tourism, and one of the best ways of reducing the threat is to reduce the risk from well-meaning individuals bringing small amounts of meat and dairy into the UK and the less well-meaning who smuggle in large quantities of meat for processing and the terrorists who are challenging the safety of our farms and the country’s food security.”

‘Very worrying’ findings

NFU president Tom Bradshaw called the review findings “very worrying”. He said: “We’ve seen how disease can bring this country to a standstill. We saw it in 2001 and 2007 with foot-and-mouth disease – a disease which still haunts the memories of so many in our sector and has been prevalent in countries across Europe this year.

“We cannot afford another disease outbreak, not when we’re already struggling to fight diseases already here such as bovine TB, bluetongue and avian influenza.”

Mr Bradshaw said that England needs to invest in biosecurity, skilled staff resources and IT infrastructure now to avoid an unmanageable situation in the future.

“I hope the chancellor thoroughly considers the implications of this report ahead of her spending review next week and sets out a comprehensive and fully funded biosecurity, disease control and resilience strategic plan to help minimise the risks to British farming, the food we produce, and our economy as much as possible,” he concluded.

‘We need to move on at pace’

Nick Allen, CEO of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), said that its members agree with a lot of the findings in the report and would like to highlight that England is “increasingly vulnerable” to a major disease outbreak. BMPA members added that they doubt the county’s ability to deal effectively with one if it were to happen.

“Our failure to push on with a comprehensive livestock tracing system exposes us; devolved powers get in the way of rational decisions being made and add inefficiency and cost to the system, as we are seeing with bluetongue at present.

“The report is quite correct to say our systems and processes are out of date and long overdue for a complete revamp. That said, we recognise how complex it is to bring all the disjointed parts of the tracing system together.

“For years this subject has not been prioritised; devolution and different departments with different remits coming together to work with industry to get progress have proved an arduous task.

“We need to move on at pace; otherwise there will be a heavy price to pay that far exceeds the cost of putting together a tracing system for today’s world.”

Read more livestock news.