Kathryn Clark

Brexit and biosecurity

The potential impact of Brexit on the UK has been subject to scrutiny and discussion from all angles in the months since the EU referendum. An issue currently under the spotlight is the impact of leaving the EU on the UK’s plant and animal biosecurity. The House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee announced last week that it had launched an inquiry into this, with the aim of examining the challenges and opportunities that might arise as a result of Brexit and highlighting key areas where it feels cooperation should continue and what form that cooperation should take. The old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ underpins biosecurity and one only has to look at the continued westward spread of African swine fever (ASF) in eastern Europe to find …

Enhancing veterinary scanning surveillance

Five years ago, responding to a consultation by (the then) Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency – now the Animal and Plant Health Agency – on plans to reform veterinary scanning surveillance in England and Wales, BVA expressed concern that many of the proposed changes seemed to be financially driven rather than focused on maintaining viable scanning surveillance. The AHVLA/APHA went ahead with its ‘Surveillance 2014’ reforms, but BVA’s concerns remain. In a newly published position statement on veterinary scanning surveillance in the UK, BVA recognises the financial constraints facing government surveillance networks and the restructuring that has taken place, but makes clear that ‘fundamentally BVA would oppose any further reduction in the current …

No turning back on TB

Anyone hoping that a review of Defra’s 25-year bovine TB eradication strategy could signal a U-turn on the controversial badger cull is set to be disappointed. The review, Defra said last week, ‘is not a review of badger culling’ and it will not revisit the rationale for the current approaches in the strategy. As if to underline that badger culling remains a key part of its strategy going forward, Defra has also begun consulting on two potential new badger control policies (see p 208). The first of these proposes allowing badger culling in the low-risk area (LRA) of England ‘in the rare event that disease is present in badgers and is linked with infection in cattle herds’. Although Defra does not specifically refer to the finding, in August last year, of Mycobacterium bovis in badgers in a 250-square mile TB …

Brexit: where are we?

Amid seemingly endless media coverage of the Brexit negotiations, it can be difficult to keep track of what progress is being made and what is still up for debate, particularly on issues of interest to the profession. To this end, BVA has just produced a summary of its activities and achievements around Brexit over the past year. Its work has been guided by the 52 recommendations in its ‘Brexit and the veterinary profession’ report, published in May last year. So, what has been done? Workforce issues have taken centre stage, with the potential loss of EU vet graduates from the UK bringing preexisting problems with recruitment and retention within the profession into particularly sharp focus. Non-UK EU graduates make a significant contribution to the UK profession – in June 2017, the RCVS Register …

Looking to tomorrow

‘Although we cannot look into the future, it is clear that a more diverse, flexible, balanced and forward-looking veterinary profession will be better able to adjust to whatever tomorrow will bring.’ Those are the words of Rafael Laguens, president of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), in the recently published report and action plan of the VetFutures Europe project.1 The project was set up last year. It was informed by a survey of the European profession carried out by the FVE in 2015 and also took inspiration from the UK’s own VetFutures project, run collaboratively by the BVA and RCVS. Like its UK counterpart, it has sought to identify the challenges facing the veterinary profession and …

Ambitions for science after Brexit

WITH Brexit negotiations well underway – although seemingly making little progress at present – the Department for Exiting the European Union has spent the summer publishing a series of papers setting out the UK’s current position and future ambitions. So far, papers have focused on issues such as Northern Ireland, the protection of personal data and future customs arrangements. But earlier this month, it added another: ‘Collaboration on science and innovation – a future partnership paper’. While not considering the veterinary field directly, this will nonetheless be of interest to anyone concerned about the possible impact of Brexit on UK veterinary research. Highlighting the UK’s strong history of working with European and other partners on science and innovation, the paper sets out the UK government’s ambition to seek a far-reaching agreement on a framework for future collaboration. The government is keen to build on the UK’s ‘uniquely close’ relationship with the EU and explore the possibility of ‘forging a more ambitious and close partnership with the EU than any yet agreed between the EU and a non-EU country’. The paper sets out the benefits to the EU of continued access to UK researchers and research facilities. It points out that the UK is home to four of the world’s top 10 …

‘Remarkable year’ for tackling antimicrobial resistance

The government has published its third annual progress report on the UK’s Five-Year Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy. Now past the midway point of the strategy, which was launched in 2013 to reduce the spread and development of resistance, the report shows renewed international efforts to meet its aim. Dame Sally Davies, the …

Brexit and funding for UK R&D

THIS time last year, the UKs electorate was gearing up to vote in a referendum to decide on the countrys future in the European Union. This week, the electorate is gearing up to vote again, this time to decide on the government it wants to lead Brexit negotiations. Among those who will be following those negotiations closely will be members of the UKs research, development and innovation sector, including the veterinary research community. The EU currently has a total estimated budget of €120 billion available to support research and innovation activities up until 2020 and, in recent years, the UK has been one of the most successful EU member states when it comes to securing funding for R&D. In a report examining the role of the EU in funding UK research, published in December 2015, the Royal Society noted that, between 2007 and 2013, just under one-fifth of the total money the UK received from the EU was used to support research, development and innovation. Over the same period, the UK was a net beneficiary of EU funding for R&D, contributing €5.4 billion towards the EUs R&D budget but receiving €8.8 billion of the EUs total spend (of €107 billion) on research, development and innovation. This was the fourth largest share in the EU after Germany, Poland and Italy. Veterinary …

Animal sentience: principle of Article 13 must be enshrined in UK law, say vets

ALMOST 1200 vets, vet nurses and students have signed a letter calling for the UK government to ensure there is a statutory requirement for the state to take account of animal welfare when developing and implementing policy after Brexit. Published in The Daily Telegraph on 28 November, the letter called for the principle of Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty to be explicitly enshrined in UK legislation after the UK leaves the EU. Because Article 13, which also states that animals are sentient, has its origins in a treaty rather than …

Is EMS up to the mark

‘Could do better’ was the verdict reached on EMS during a contentious issues debate at this years BVA Congress in Cardiff. Delegates heard that, while EMS might be considered ‘the jewel in the crown’ of undergraduate veterinary education, changes were needed to ensure it remained so.