UK faces challenges of new livestock diseases emerging

The UK is threatened by a large number of emerging livestock diseases and controlling them will take a co-ordinated European and international approach, said Vet Medicines Directorate (VMD) chief executive Steve Dean.

Dean said preventing the spread of disease from other parts of the world protects farmers and consumers in Europe as well as in areas that are already infected.

He said the rapid spread of bluetongue has demonstrated the problems emerging disease can cause, adding that when they were not protected by vaccines, some sheep owners in Europe were seeing mortality rates of up to 20 percent in their flocks in 2007.

He also said new strains of bluetongue are a threat, including new mutating strains, but there are also a number of others including classical swine fever and bird flu.

VMD is part of the European Technology Platform for Global Animal Health which seeks to speed up the development and introduction of vaccines and medicines to combat diseases.

A particular focus is on ensuring that legislation does not hold up the introduction of vaccines, particularly when a disease threat is imminent.

Dean cited the introduction of the bluetongue vaccine (BTV8) as a good example of this with the product developed, approved and administered within two years compared to at least seven years for most vaccines.

He also said the industry needs to develop a communication strategy to demonstrate the importance of using vaccines and preventative medicines.

This will be particularly important when a new generation of products that have been developed using genetic modification come on to the market in the next few years.