UK vulnerable to major animal disease outbreaks, report finds

Inadequate management and underinvestment in main Animal and Plant Health Agency facility has left country at risk, MPs warn

The UK's main animal disease facility has been left to deteriorate to an alarming extent" leaving the country vulnerable to major outbreaks on the scale of the devastating 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, MPs have warned.

An inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee found that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Weybridge was continually vulnerable to a major breakdown" because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had comprehensively failed" in its management of the site.