Still delays despite Blairs promises

27 March 2001



Still delays despite Blair’s promises

By FWi staff

FARMERS are having to wait days before livestock infected with foot-and-mouth disease are destroyed – despite a government pledge to the contrary.

The time from reporting to diagnosis and confirmation of foot-and-mouth in Northumberland is still far too long, a veterinary expert has warned.

The vet, who asked not to be named, said farmers were suffering because all available veterinary resources had been allocated to neighbouring Cumbria.

Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Cumbria last week and pledged that it would take no longer than 24 hours to cull animals diagnosed with the disease.

But some Northumberland farmers have had to wait five days after the disease was confirmed in their livestock for their animals to be slaughtered.

Hexham MP Peter Atkinson (Con) said a local control centre should be set up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to coordinate the fight against the disease.

Malcolm Corbett, county chairman for the National Farmers Union, said he had asked for more resources to be put into Northumberland a week ago.

“So many resources have gone into Cumbria, and quite rightly so, but we need it here and we need it now,” he told FARMERS WEEKLY.

Mr Corbett added: “We must get the priority raised for Northumberland, as it is redeemable at present but soon itll be too late.”

There has not been any improvement in the time taken to achieve “diagnosis-to-death”, despite claims by the government that it had been reduced to 24 hours.

NFU officials in Cumbria claimed there was a massive log-jam in London, where government officials are processing details of foot-and-mouth outbreaks.

Nick Utting of Cumbria NFU said that there had been no improvement despite Mr Blairs promises to do everything he could to resolve the situation.

Red tape and bureaucracy were still hampering any speeding-up of information that had been sent to London from Carlisle, he said.

“We are very concerned and anxious about the delays that continue to block the speed with which stock is diagnosed and the time taken to slaughter.

“The whole system isnt working as it should, despite everything that has been promised and claims made by MAFF that the 24-hour target has been reached.”

Agriculture minister Nick Brown repeated that the target was to reduce the time between the first report of the disease and slaughter to 24 hours.

“We are achieving this in large parts of the country,” he said.

However, Mr Brown admitted: “In Cumbria the high density of infection and sheer number of cases has meant that we are not yet achieving that target.

“Work is in hand to address this,” he said.