Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to improve biosecurity on farms.
George Eustice
A joint government and industry bovine TB biosecurity campaign was launched in November 2015 and will run for 12 months. It aims to increase the number of farmers implementing TB biosecurity measures on their farms and whilst trading cattle. The biosecurity campaign already includes a TB Hub bringing together information, advice, guidance and research material on how to prevent TB through biosecurity and risk based trading, an information bTB website allowing farmers to view information on TB breakdowns in their area on an interactive map and a Five Point Plan setting out good practice for TB biosecurity. Several further steps in the biosecurity campaign are being launched throughout 2016.
More generally, on-farm biosecurity is part of a wider landscape of measures to provide effective protection from animal and plant disease. Defra’s wider activities on biosecurity contribute to improving the resilience of the system as a whole.
The Rural Development Programme animal health projects have a focus on tackling exemplar diseases in cattle, sheep and pigs sectors through improved farm disease risk management practices. It is intended that this will have a wider benefit in improving farm biosecurity practices.
