NFU chief calls for ban on imports

Published on Wednesday 26 November 2008 20:41

ANIMAL diseases are becoming increasingly internationalised. In March 2006 the UK was hit by the announcement in the House of Commons that there might be a connection between BSE in cattle and variant CJD in the human population.

That link has never been proven conclusively, but the subsequent media coverage cost the farming industry millions.

Then on 23 February, 2001, foot-and-mouth disease was discovered in Northumberland. Over the subsequent six months the UK suffered the world's worst epidemic of FMD with 2,030 confirmed cases of which 187 were in Scotland.

The industry, widely regarded as a pariah, took years to recover. Then last autumn bluetongue was diagnosed in sheep in the south of England. The strain was BTV8, which had only recently spread into northern Europe. Losses to sheep and cattle from this virus can be catastrophic.

The veterinary authorities in Scotland played a steady hand, but recently introduced a mandatory vaccination policy in contrast to England and Wales where immunisation is on a voluntary basis that is clearly haphazard.

The situation in recent weeks has deteriorated to the extent that cattle imported from France have been found to carrying a new strain – BTV1. The Scottish view, as made clear yesterday by Jim McLaren, president of NFU Scotland, is that there should be a ban on all imports.

He said: "The discovery of BTV1 in Great Britain is a wake-up call for all livestock farmers. The key to protection lies in the avoidance of imports in the first place. The most alarming fact is that these animals came in from an area in France where both BTV1 and BTV8 were known to be circulating.

"This highlights the continued breakdown of control measures in Europe. Only by bringing into force an immediate ban on imports can UK producers protect themselves from this devastating disease."