Biosecurity

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dame Siobhain. I thank the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for securing this really important debate. We have heard about a range of biosecurity threats. Each of them has real potential to undermine our national security by disrupting our access to food, making our workforce sick, or crippling our export market. What concerns me most, however, is not any single one of those diseases or pests; it is what would happen if the UK were to be hit with two or more outbreaks concurrently.

The likelihood of that happening is greater than ever. We must recognise that threats such as bluetongue, avian influenza and virus yellows, alongside bovine TB, are part of the new normal and that our biosecurity defences need to have enough capacity to deal with them, as well as future threats such as African swine fever, simultaneously. That means ensuring that the Pirbright Institute and the APHA site at Weybridge are fit for purpose, that we are recruiting and retaining enough vets and border control staff, that there is sufficient rendering capacity to dispose of culled animal carcases, and that we have a proper border control strategy. I was alarmed when Dr Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, warned the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee earlier this year that parts of the Weybridge APHA facility were at risk of being taken out of service. I welcome the additional funding that the Government have promised for the facility, and I seriously hope that the £208 million is enough not only to fund a much-needed refurbishment but to transform Weybridge into a facility that will protect the UK from the biological threats of tomorrow.

Our nation’s biosecurity defences must consist not just of buildings but of people. Despite the important role that vets and allied professionals, such as meat hygiene inspectors, play in protecting us from disease, and despite the clear evidence that there is a shortage of them in agricultural supply chains, the Government’s workforce data is poor. Unlike the United States and Australasia, which are facing similar shortages, we do not even know the scale of the problem, let alone how best to solve it. What we do know is that 45% of vets leaving the industry have less than four years’ experience, that the attrition rate in abattoirs is rising by 11% each year and that many of our veterinary schools are struggling to get two qualified applicants for clinical teaching roles.

Workforce shortages are a key challenge facing the veterinary profession, and these problems are particularly pronounced in rural areas such as Glastonbury and Somerton. Solutions such as creating new vet schools and increasing the number of university places will take at least five years to shift the dial on our vet workforce. That is why it is critical that the Government transfer work visa policymaking from the Home Office to other Departments such as DEFRA.

Improving our biosecurity will ensure that we can continue to prevent major infectious disease outbreaks, which are expensive and harm our international reputation, but it will create opportunities too. The two most widely discussed problems in agriculture are business viability and climate change, and what is often forgotten in these conversations is that vaccinations can play a part in supporting both. As we have heard in this debate, diseases such as bluetongue, Schmallenberg virus and avian influenza can lead to stunted growth in livestock. They fail to reproduce, they abort and they are more likely to die. I spoke to a farmer in Barton St David recently, and they told me that that just means more inputs for lower outputs, and for consumers it means more expensive food. He also said that it means more damage to the environment as well.

Research from my alma mater, Harper Adams University, shows that controlling avian influenza reduces greenhouse gas emissions by almost 16% per kilogram of meat without the need for culling. Following several successful campaigns from industry bodies, most livestock farmers now accept the benefits of regular vaccinations and parasite control. However, our inconsistent domestic vaccine capacity is preventing them from doing so. For example, this summer, sheep farmers saw yet another shortage of enzootic abortion vaccinations and continued shortages of orf vaccinations.

Covid-19 demonstrated that the UK is a vaccination superpower that can develop and procure the best proactive defences against new threats. It also showed us how vulnerable we are if we do not have access to vaccines. I urge the Government to bolster our vaccination production capacity by introducing a research and innovation fund to support new and emerging technologies. Innovation must also be fostered within Departments and Government bodies.

It is worrying that imports of illegal meats have doubled to almost 70,000 kg this year, which leaves us particularly vulnerable to African swine fever and foot and mouth disease. Although this must be tackled first and foremost by developing a joint strategy with Europol and Eurojust, the Government could also slash the demand for these illegal imports by allowing food producers to provide cuts and products favoured by different communities safely. For example, if skin-on lamb was produced in the UK, the incentive to import it illegally would fall to near zero.

Safeguarding the public must be one of the Government’s top priorities following 14 years of Conservative failure. Farmers’ confidence levels have slumped to a record low, and part of their restoration must be to provide biosecurity measures that will protect the UK from both existing threats and the threats of tomorrow.