UK Vulnerable to Animal Disease Outbreaks Due to Government’s Negligence

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom's main animal disease control facility is in critical condition due to a lack of management and investment that leaves the country vulnerable to major animal disease outbreaks, the UK Public Accounts Committee said on Wednesday.

"The UK’s main animal health facility at Weybridge has been left to deteriorate to an alarming extent. The risk of a zoonotic (animal sourced) disease is real and the consequences can be devastating as the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001 and most recently Avian Influenza have shown," the committee said in a statement.

The facility is almost incapable of managing threats from animal diseases because the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) failed to provide adequate management and investment in the site, the statement added.

According to the statement, the center will run into trouble if it encounters anything more serious than an outbreak of bird flu. The United Kingdom faces real threats from bovine tuberculosis, African swine fever, and rabies, the committee said.

The last major incident at the facility occurred in 2014 when backup generators failed, resulting in power outages in some high containment buildings, the statement noted, adding that this could have led to a pathogen leak.

The statement noted that Defra designed a renovation program expected to cost 2.8 billion pounds ($3.3 billion) over 15 years but HM Treasury has not yet agreed to fund it in full.