Lamb trade 'could spread disease'

The UK has been disease free for more than a year

The frequent transport of lambs awaiting slaughter could fuel a new foot and mouth outbreak in the UK, say researchers.

A report from Newcastle University claims that while many improvements have been made since the 2001 epidemic, more could be done to reduce the risk of disease spreading.

The 2001 crisis resulted in the deaths of about seven million animals, and the destruction of thousands of farmers' livelihoods. It also cost the nation about £8bn.

The latest report levels particular criticism at the "fat lamb" trade, involving young sheep being fattened for slaughter.

The supply chain can involve a large number of different organisations, including different farmers, dealers, auctioneers and abattoirs.

Frequent movements

Lambs are often transported between several different locations in a relatively short period.

When the researchers, from the Centre for Rural Economy at the university, focused on the trade in the north east of England, they discovered that many of these movements were not fully documented, so it was difficult to tell exactly where the lamb had been.

The government has made great progress since the 2001 outbreak, but there is still much room for improvement

Michael Bourlakis, University of Newcastle

If a lamb was found to be infected with foot and mouth, this "traceability" information is vital so that possible infection sites can be dealt with swiftly.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Bourlakis told BBC News Online that it was essential that the industry found a way to introduce tracing systems for the sheep flock.

He said: "We really need to minimise the number of movements that a 'fat lamb' makes, as many of these are unnecessary.

"A good way of doing this would be to have more abattoirs and place them close to auctioneers.

"But traceability information must also be improved.

"The government has made great progress since the 2001 outbreak, but there is still much room for improvement."

Alan Waller, chairman of the Institute of Logistics and Transport, conceded that if the number of movements of fat lambs were decreased, it was likely that "supply chain costs" would rise, increasing the price of lamb in supermarkets.

However, he said: "The outcome of this report demonstrates the need for policy makers to incorporate supply-chain thinking into future legislation and guidelines relating to animal movements if future epidemics are to be avoided or contained."

Action taken

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that new "traceability" measures would be in force from next month.

She said: "We are introducing individual ID of sheep and goats from February - which will make it easier to trace stock in the event of a disease outbreak.

"There is already a central database of batch movements of sheep as well as tagging, record keeping and reporting requirements."

From March, a six day "movement standstill" is being imposed for livestock, which means that animals can only be moved once every six days at most.

This will allow the symptoms of disease to emerge before the animal has infected many more.

The spokesman said: "The Government is to commission further work into the impact of dealers on the pattern of livestock movements and the possibility of imposing a distance limit of 150 kilometres on the movement of animals through markets."