The NPA team enjoyed a well-earned break over the festive period, but came back to reality with a bump after hearing the news that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) had been confirmed in an extensively grazed herd of water buffalo in the Brandenburg area of Germany, near the Polish border.
It’s concerning that the water buffalo hadn’t been moved recently and, as the incubation period for FMD is up to 14 days, it would suggest they’d had contact with an infected vector in the locality, one theory being wild boar, although there is no evidence that verifies this at the time of writing.
All dead wild boar previously tested for African swine fever (ASF) have now been tested for FMD and all susceptible animals in a 1km zone were culled and tested – all negative.
Stark reminder
While we await details on the possible route of transmission and any further spread, it has served as a stark reminder of the serious threat posed by notifiable diseases and just how vulnerable our borders are to this risk.
Government has banned all live animals and products of animal origin (POAO) from Germany and introduced safeguarding measures for personal imports that are similar to what already exists for pork. This means travellers may only bring in up to 2kg of POAO from cloven-hooved animals from the rest of the EU, if produced to EU commercial standards (with zero tolerance for everything else).
But it has not allocated extra resource to ensure the restrictions can actually be implemented and enforced, and there’s no apparent coordination with the points of entry and local authorities responsible for them to ensure any of it is actually deliverable. So, Defra ministers’ continued refrain that ‘we’re taking the necessary precautions, and everything is just fine’ is not at all reassuring.
Our messaging has always been: “Yes, ASF will be horrific for the pig sector, but it’s actually the lesser of two evils, as the greater concern is FMD, which would be catastrophic.”
Therefore, we’re continuing to lobby on every possible platform – just to provide a few examples, via newsletters and briefings to parliamentarians; our recent All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meet-the-producer breakfast and giving evidence to the EFRA Committee inquiry on border controls and biosecurity.
It’s so infuriating when Defra acknowledges the evidence and appears to recognise the risk by saying all the right things, and then does absolutely nothing about it!
Fingers crossed this FMD episode in Germany is a one-off and the market continues to recover. Any more outbreaks will have a significant effect on both pig and cull sow prices, which will only serve to drag ours down further while flooding the market with both legal and potentially illegal pigmeat.
In other news, it all seems very quiet within the policy sphere at the moment. While there has been a little movement, we still await further announcements from government in various areas.
This includes the conclusion of the fair dealing obligations regulations, its response to the rapid review of the Farming Rules for Water (FRfW) and accompanying statutory guidance, and some sort of movement on farrowing systems. In addition, the EFRA Committee is starting a busy programme of work, including looking at the future of farming, fairness in the food supply chain and biosecurity at the border.
Minister meeting
We did manage to secure 10 minutes with minister Zeichner at our recent APPG event to ask him about FRfW, but all he could tell us was ‘we’re working on it; I can’t say any more’. We are hearing more encouraging noises from Defra, however, so hopefully it won’t be long before we’re afforded a little more direction on these vital areas.
The minister was more optimistic about the work to help shake up the planning system, making it easier for producers to secure permissions for upgrades and new buildings and infrastructure on farm.
The inner workings of the cumbersome machine of government are slow at the best of times, but add to that a party that hasn’t been in office for 14 years and a significant proportion of completely new MPs, and progress has, in some cases, slowed to almost non-existent. Oh, and don’t forget the aftermath of the disastrous Budget, which is keeping ministers and their teams busy.
Hopefully, it’s not too long before we finally get the engagement we’ve been pushing for and can start meaningful discussions in earnest, so we can continue to fight the industry’s corner on many fronts.