The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has described Germany’s foot-and-mouth outbreak as a ‘wake-up call’ to the UK and urged the government to act to improve our border controls.
The German outbreak increasingly appears to have been contained to a small herd of water buffalo close to Berlin, although investigations into how it got there continue.
An Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee hearing earlier this month heard that meat and dairy products from Germany continued to enter the UK after the FMD ban came into force on January 11.
Helen Buckingham, an Environmental Health Practitioner and regulatory consultant, told MPs that the government’s IPAFFS import notification system took another seven days to adjust after that date. “In that time, things got through and that is fairly remarkable,” she said.
Lucy Manzano, Dover Port Health Authority’s (APHA’s) head of port health and public protection, said she was aware that ‘for at least six days’ after the ban came in, German products coming into the UK were able to ‘auto clear’ via the ‘timed-out decision contingency feature’ (TODCOF) system.
Weaknesses
BMPA said the situation highlighted weaknesses in the UK’s biosecurity controls at its borders.
It highlighted issues with both legal commercial shipments of meat which the Border Target Operating Model is there to manage, and which is all pre-notified with full export health certification, and the illegal meat being brought into the UK in smaller vehicles that can only be detected via a system of intelligence and spot checks at the ports.
“For illegal meat imports, Brexit has not changed anything. EU member states as well as the UK can now and always could impose border checks based on risk assessments and intelligence,” BMPA said.
“What seems to have happened is that the level of criminal activity has increased. It has become more lucrative and easier to smuggle cheap, illegal meat products into the UK which get distributed to small shops and individuals via an established criminal network.”
But it stressed that, for legal meat imports, all imports of meat from Germany could and should have been stopped immediately when the FMD case was announced.
“It actually took several days. There should also have been a blanket ban on individual travellers bringing any amount of meat or dairy into the UK, which poses just as big a risk to biosecurity as illegal imports,” BMPA said.
“A blanket ban would be much simpler to follow and would have removed the requirement for individuals to work out the complicated temporary restrictions that were put in place. Disinfectant mats should also have been placed at all ports of entry for foot passengers and vehicles.”
Traceability
BMPA also highlighted concerns over the UK’s livestock traceability in the event of an outbreak of a notifiable disease like FMD, particularly when it comes to cattle and sheep.
It pointed out that FMD spread so widely and quickly in 2001 because animal movements continued for several days after the first case was reported, but there was no real-time digital system to track where they went.
‘We now have a system and the tools needed to be able to quickly shut down animal movements within the UK should FMD reach our shores called the Livestock Information Service.
“However, its use isn’t mandatory and, furthermore, movements only get notified AFTER an animal movement has taken place. In other countries movement licenses must be applied for BEFORE animals are moved from one farm to another or through the livestock auctions, which makes it much easier for the authorities to control the spread of disease,” BMPA said.
“We need government to make the use of this existing traceability system mandatory for cattle and sheep and for licenses to be applied for in advance. Without that the UK has no ability to lock down animal movements the minute a notifiable disease is discovered.”