£2m funding to tackle foot and mouth

Scientists at the Institute for Animal Health have secured the funds which they said will place the Surrey-based institute at the centre of global expertise on research, surveillance and diagnostics for the highly contagious disease, which caused misery to thousands of farmers and resulted in widespread movement restrictions following two outbreaks in 2001 and 2007.

The 2001 outbreak alone resulted in 6.5m sheep, cattle and pigs being slaughtered to control the disease and a loss of £8bn to the economy.

A second outbreak in 2007 resulted in many summer shows having to be cancelled or scaled back.

The funding was awarded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), as part of a global strategy to control foot and mouth.

Jef Hammond, head of the world reference laboratory foot and mouth disease at IAH Pirbright, said: “The initial phase of the strategy, which includes the funding for our lab, gives us an opportunity on a global scale to implement the measures that we know can work to control foot-and-mouth.

“The FAO and OIE are promoting a co-ordinated approach across the world using effective diagnostics, vaccines and other control measures – many of which were developed here at Pirbright.”

Bryan Charleston, head of IAH’s livestock viral disease programme, said the ultimate aim was to provide a cheap and effective vaccine that farmers could use to prevent foot and mouth in their animals. We hope that during the lifetime of this initiative we will be in a position to provide just such a vaccine.”

The funds are to be used to create a dedicated team at Pirbright that will focus on delivering the aims of the global foot-and-mouth disease control strategy.

The IAH said the potential impact on food security of another of foot-and-mouth outbreak would be “enormous”, particularly at a time when consumption of animal protein is rising and the global population is set to reach nine billion by 2050.

“We are, however, fortunate in being currently foot and mouth free,” added Dr Hammond.