The Animal Health Act 2002 requires that the contingency plans for Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease are reviewed annually and where appropriate updated, before being laid before Parliament.
To meet this requirement, Defra has begun an annual review of its Contingency Plan for Exotic Diseases of Animals, comprising the Framework Response Plan which outlines the roles, responsibilities, systems and structures in place for responding to an outbreak of animal disease, and an Overview of Emergency Preparedness which provides more detailed information relating to the work of the Animal Health, Contingency Planning Division on preparing for emergencies and the operational arrangements for response.
The plan covers arrangements for responding to outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease, but would also form the basis for response in the event of an outbreak of other notifiable exotic diseases of animals.
The plan was last laid before Parliament on 9 December 2008. The main changes from this version, made as part of the current review are attached.
Section 14A of the Animal Health act requires that organisations representative of those with an interest in the arrangements be consulted on national contingency plans.
To meet this requirement, BSAVA members are invited to provide comment on this revised version of the plan through the BSAVA Secretary.
The consultation package can be viewed in PDF form together with the relevant documents here >>
The package comprises:
- Consultation letter
- List of consultees
- Defra's Framework Response Plan for Exotic Diseases of Animals
- Defra's Overview of Emergency Preparedness for Exotic Diseases of Animals
- Annex A - Scope of Consultation
- Table of changes from the previous version
Hard copies of the documents will be made available upon request. BSAVA members should be aware that the Framework Response Plan is 145 pages long (including cover and index) and the Overview of Emergency Preparedness is 73 pages long (including cover and index).
Your views are invited on any aspect of the contingency plan via the BSAVA Honorary Secretary, Alison Speakman, and must be received no later than 31 August 2009 in order to be collated and presented.
Additionally, to help review the style of the plan for future years, specific comments on the current format, style and size of the document are welcomed:
- Does this plan help you to plan for an outbreak of exotic disease of animals?
- Does it need more or less detail?
- Is there any aspect of the document which you think is unnecessary?
- Is there any aspect of the disease control process which, from your experience, is not covered?
This document is issued by Animal Health on behalf of Defra for England only, although Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland develop similar plans which reflect and compliment these arrangements within the Devolved Administration structures. These plans are also made available to interested parties.
Responses
E-mail responses should be sent to the BSAVA Honorary Secretary, Alison Speakman, secretary@bsava.com, and should be received no later than 31 August 2009.
A list of consultees is available as part of the consultation package. The full consultation package can be viewed online by following the quick links, www.defra.gov.uk