The government is not sufficiently prepared for the increasing risk from animal disease

4 Jun 2025 02:47 PM

• Outbreaks of animal diseases have occurred in each of the past six years and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) have worked hard to manage them
• It’s likely that Defra and APHA would struggle to cope with a more severe outbreak of animal disease
• Long term resilience is being undermined by the necessity of focusing on increasingly frequent outbreaks and there is no long-term strategy

Key public bodies are insufficiently prepared for a major animal disease1outbreak and would likely struggle to cope with one, the latest report from the National Audit Office finds.

Factors such as climate change and anti-microbial resistance mean outbreaks are increasingly frequent and livestock more vulnerable, but government lacks a strategy and action plan for improving resilience to animal diseases. 

Past animal disease outbreaks have had significant economic impacts. For example, the major foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001 cost the public and private sectors an estimated £13.8 billion (in 2023-24 prices). Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu have resulted in 7.2 million birds being culled between November 2020 and mid-March 2025.

Defra and APHA have worked hard to manage recent medium-severity outbreaks, but the report finds a range of challenges leading to them being insufficiently prepared for a more severe outbreak. These include:

• Significant gaps in government contingency plans.
• Outdated and inefficient operational processes within APHA.
• Out of date infrastructure, particularly relating to the government’s animal science facility at Weybridge. Defra’s programme to redevelop Weybridge is now on track but will not be completed for another 10 years.
• No comprehensive livestock movement tracing system, despite attempts to establish one beginning in 2013.
• Capacity and skills shortages – for example, APHA’s vet vacancy rate in April 2025 was 20%.

Defra and APHA have introduced initiatives to strengthen resilience2, such as the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which provides funding to support improvements in animal health on farms, and research and innovation to improve detection and response to disease.

However, progress is being undermined by global issues with supply of animal vaccines3 and significant threats to biosecurity at the border.

Defra’s best estimate for the proportion of live animal imports from the EU and the rest of the world currently undergoing physical checks is 5%, against a government target of 100% at border control posts by the end of 2024.4

Defra and APHA have a good understanding of new and emerging risks from animal diseases, a core principle of resilience. They have robust arrangements in place to gather intelligence on animal disease risks through ‘horizon scanning’ and international disease monitoring. APHA also conducts surveillance, testing and inspections of premises to help detect infections early and stop their spread.

But, the report says, responding to increasingly frequent outbreaks has affected Defra’s and APHA’s ability to undertake other important work that would help strengthen resilience in the longer term. Their current approach, where staff switch priority from business-as-usual activities to outbreak response, is unlikely to be fit for purpose if they are in almost constant outbreak mode.

“Defra has assessed that the risk of an outbreak to which it would be unable to respond effectively is above the level it considers tolerable, but it has not determined a way to reduce this risk. A long-term strategy and action plan are urgently needed, to protect national economic resilience as well as food security, human health and rural communities.”

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO

Read the full report

Resilience to animal diseases

Notes for editors

1. Animal diseases are categorised as exotic (not normally present in the UK, such as foot and mouth disease) or endemic (already present in the UK, such as bovine tuberculosis).
2. Figure 8 describes a range of measures put in place by Defra and APHA to improve resilience.
3. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate told us that supply issues have become more acute in the last two years, in part due to structural issues in the global market and limited incentives on the private sector to produce animal vaccines.
4. This target was set out in the government’s 2023 Border Target Operating Model, and included specific exemptions or reduced checks for some types of high health equines (such as racehorses) from low-risk countries, some zoological animals and some live aquatic animals.