Environment Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 31 January 2008.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what notifiable animal disease outbreaks have occurred in each of the last 10 years; and what the estimated cost to (a) the British farming industry and (b) the public purse was of each.
A list of notifiable disease outbreaks for the last 10 years (taken from previous Chief Veterinary Officer annual reports) is set out in the following table.
Disease | |
2007 | Avian Influenza (Al) |
Bluetongue | |
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) | |
Contagious Equine Metritis Organism (CEMO) | |
Bat Rabies (European Bat Lyssavirus Type 2) | |
Tuberculosis (TB) | |
2006 | Al |
Newcastle Disease | |
Bat Rabies | |
Anthrax | |
CEMO | |
Equine Infectious Anaemia | |
Scrapie | |
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) | |
TB | |
2005 | Newcastle Disease |
CEMO | |
Scrapie | |
BSE | |
Paramyxovirus (PMV) in Pigeons | |
TB | |
2004 | Brucellosis |
Scrapie | |
PMV in Pigeons | |
BSE | |
Equine Viral Arteritis | |
TB | |
2003 | Scrapie |
PMV in Pigeons | |
BSE | |
CEMO | |
Brucellosis | |
TB | |
2002 | Scrapie |
PMV in Pigeons | |
BSE | |
CEMO | |
Anthrax | |
TB | |
2001 | Scrapie |
PMV in Pigeons | |
BSE | |
Foot and Mouth Disease | |
TB | |
2000 | Scrapie |
PMV in Pigeons | |
BSE | |
Classical Swine Fever | |
TB | |
1999 | PMV in Pigeons |
BSE | |
Scrapie | |
TB | |
1998 | PMV in Pigeons |
BSE | |
Equine Viral Arteritis | |
Scrapie | |
TB |
Information on the cost of all notifiable disease outbreaks is not available for each of the past 10 years. Available evidence suggests that by far the most costly exotic disease outbreak in this period was FMD in 2001, which was estimated to have cost Government £2.6 billion (in 2001 prices), leaving a further £355 million in uncompensated costs to agricultural producers.
DEFRA's current estimate of the economic cost to the UK livestock sector as a result of the 2007 FMD outbreak is over £100million. The estimated total cost to the Government of the outbreaks in 2007 is £47 million for FMD, £1.7 million on bluetongue and £5 million on Al (two outbreaks). The other values could only be provided at disproportionate cost to the Department.
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