Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to co-ordinate the response to the threat of H5N1 and H5N5 transmission to companion animals, cattle, domestic poultry, wild birds and humans.

Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) have stood up their well-established outbreak structures to control and eradicate disease, restore normal trade, and assist local communities’ recovery as set out in the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England, Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain and the Mitigation Strategy for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in England and Wales. This includes working closely to share information and manage incidents with the Department for Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency and the Food Standards Agency.

In addition, international collaboration and knowledge exchange on the threat of avian influenza from across Government is coordinated by Defra and facilitated through discussions between the UK Chief Veterinary Officer and representatives from Defra policy teams and APHA’s avian influenza national and international reference laboratories, and their global counterparts through the World Organisation for Animal Health, the Quadripartite Organisations and allied projects. Including through the the joint World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Scientific Network on animal influenza OFFLU.