My journey into politics as a veterinary surgeon started from my experiences working on the frontline in the 2001 Foot and Mouth Crisis as a Veterinary Inspector.
I saw sights then that I never wish anyone to see again supervising some of the mass culls that gripped our countryside communities during that period.
Bustling farms and fields were left empty and even the hardiest of weathered farmers could not contain their grief. One particular memory I cannot shake came after we worked through the night with logistical support from the British Army to cull an entire herd of cattle – including the calves – and in the morning when the farmer kindly invited me into his home for breakfast the farmer said: “This is the first time I have woken up and I cannot hear anything at all on my farm.”
With lives, livelihoods and community mental health impacted long after the Army was stood down, I vowed never to repeat this grim episode in our nation’s history.
So now as the first vet elected since 1884 and with the Autumn Budget fast approaching, I am urging the Chancellor to take resolute and proactive steps to bolster the nation’s biosecurity defences and properly fund the Animal and Plant Health Agency which provides a critical line of defence against disease outbreaks.
In 2022, an important National Audit Office report outlined the that the APHA’s Weybridge headquarters needs a complete redevelopment. With laboratory space compromised by building failures, the site needed an estimated £2.8 billion redevelopment or risk leaving us unprotected against a major animal disease outbreak.
The previous Conservative government started the ball rolling and committed £1.2 billion so that work could begin but this must be followed up by necessary further capital investment as a matter of urgency.
With the growing and existing threats from Bluetongue, Avian Influenza, African Swine Fever and more, we cannot be complacent to the very real risks that could face animal and human health, our economy and trade standing, and the wider agri-food industry if a major outbreak were to occur and we were not fully equipped to deal with it.
African Swine Fever is advancing up the continent of Europe, and with alarming levels of illegal meat imports being detected, we must keep this disease at bay to avert catastrophe to our farming and food sector.
This is not some niche concern of vets and farmers. Biosecurity is national security. Compromised biosecurity effects everything from our health and the price of food to our position on the world stage and our precious environment.
The Covid pandemic sent us one clear message: some infectious diseases do not respect borders or species barriers, and we ignore this at our peril. As such, I am urging Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Labour Government from the bottom of my heart to fully fund the
APHA HQ redevelopment to make sure the burning pyres of slaughtered animals and the economic and mental health devastation of the Foot and Mouth Outbreak in 2001 remain resolutely confined to the history books forever.
Dr Neil Hudson MP FRCVS is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Epping Forest
