This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Animal disease laboratory opens
15/06/2004
Scotland's first laboratory developed specifically to
aid the eradication of any future exotic disease outbreak
was opened in Dumfries today.
A blood testing surveillance programme is needed to
prove that the disease has been eradicated and then allow
the industry to recover and exports to resume. The new
Laboratory will allow this to happen more quickly.
This new laboratory is one of a series of measures taken
by the Executive to ensure Scotland is best placed to deal
with any future disease outbreak. The normal day-to-day
work of the laboratory will cover routine surveillance and
disease control including testing and post-mortem
services.
Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie said:
"The Executive is committed to ensuring that a full
range of measures is in place to tackle any future exotic
disease outbreak.
"This new laboratory gives us the facility to prove as
quickly as possible that disease has been eradicated, and
fulfils a commitment given after the 2001 Foot and Mouth
disease outbreak.
"With Scotland's justifiably high reputation for quality
livestock produce it is vital that we are able to
demonstrate to the relevant authorities that the outbreak
has been successfully dealt with in order that markets can
be opened as quickly as possible. This is important not
just for agriculture but for the broader economy, and all
related industries such as tourism."
The laboratory cost £2.1 million and was funded by the
Executive with support from Defra, the Scottish
Agricultural College (SAC) and Scottish Enterprise Dumfries
and Galloway. It has been built on the site of the SACs
previous laboratory and offices in Dumfries and will be run
by the SAC.
This development is one of the lessons learned after the
2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak, where the Executive
acquired the services of a serology laboratory in Northern
Ireland in preference to joining the queue for laboratory
space in England.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh's Inquiry recommended
that we identify a laboratory that could undertake the
tests. Other strands of this work include the UK Animal
Disease Surveillance Strategy, the development of detailed
contingency plans, an exercise to test the new plans took
place in Scotland last September and a GB national one is
scheduled later this month.
Laboratory capacity provides an important part of
contingency planning arrangements for the Executive's
response to exotic disease outbreaks. These are diseases
such as foot and mouth disease and classical swine fever
which are not normally present within Great Britain. In
addition to enhancing the capacity to respond to disease
outbreaks the Dumfries laboratory will be used by SAC as
part of their ongoing work for the Executive in animal
disease surveillance.