Recommendation 17

The Chief Veterinary Officer explained that a major breakdown, resulting in reduced high containment laboratory capacity at the Weybridge site, would make it more difficult to respond to a major animal disease outbreak. For example, a major Foot and Mouth disease outbreak would require the testing of tens of thousands of samples with Weybridge providing the capacity to do this. While the Department would still be able to confirm disease cases, it would take much longer to do the surveillance sample testing in order to confirm an area was disease free.33 The Chief Veterinary Officer and the APHA also 26 Qq 4, 10, 11 27 Qq 14, 19 28 Qq 5, 15; C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.18 29 C&AG’s Report, paragraph 1.14 30 Q 15 31 Qq 14, 18 32 Qq 7, 22 33 Q 20 Redevelopment of Defra’s animal health infrastructure 13 explained that a major breakdown at Weybridge would mean the APHA would have to prioritise the most significant disease threats. This would impact the APHA’s other work such as its long-term research programme.34