ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE STRATEGY ADVISORY GROUP MEETING - 29 NOVEMBER 2006 - MINUTES
Present:
Charles Milne - Chief Veterinary Officer (Scotland), Chair
Stuart Reid - Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow
Julie Fitzpatrick - Chief Executive, Moredun Research Institute
Mike Robson - Scottish Branch, BVA
Ian Anderson - Head of Animal Health & Welfare Division, SEERAD
Bill McKelvey - Chief Executive, SAC
Donald Biggar - Chief Executive, QMS
Neil Ritchie - Animal Health & Welfare Division, SEERAD
Gordon Struth - Animal Health & Welfare Division, SEERAD
Apologies:
Andy Robertson - Chief Executive, NFU Scotland
Kay Driver - Chief Executive, Scottish SPCA
Minutes of the Previous Meeting
1. The Minutes of the meeting of 29 August were agreed.
Matters Arising
2. The only matter arising related to the veterinary profession; this was covered under the appropriate agenda item below.
Newcastle Disease: Communications and Update
3. The Chair updated the Group on the outbreak of Newcastle Disease that occurred at Fenton Barns, East Lothian, in October. While the commercial partridges that had contracted the disease, which was pigeon-variant, were culled, due to their rare and exotic status and other significant factors a small number of other birds at the site were not. These birds had been placed into quarantine in biosecure houses and subject to veterinary inspection for 60 days. It was stressed that this sets no precedent for the future; the collection of birds at the site were among the finest in the world and some species were extremely rare. The decision not to cull conformed with legislation and was agreed with the European Commission.
4. In the meantime the Protection Zone ended on 8 November and the Surveillance Zone on 18 November. Thanks were expressed to the BVA and RCVS, both of whom were very helpful in getting the message out to vets, which was in line with the lessons learned from Cellardyke.
Report from the Vets and Veterinary Services Workshop in Reading
5. Gordon Struth gave a brief report back on the one-day workshop organised by Defra to consider issues regarding veterinary services. He said that no action points had been produced and no particular progress made. There had been some discussion about alternative models of practice
6. The Group expressed concern at the lack of progress and recalled that the Chair had written to DEFRA in advance of the meeting about the proposed agenda. It was firmly and unanimously felt that doing nothing was not an option and while government money was not required, engagement was essential. Concern was expressed that we were no further forward than before the BVA meeting in Perth, and there was some discussion around specific issues such as LVI fees and 24/7 cover. It was further felt that Scotland should consider options we could take separately, and to look at ways of informing vets about the assistance available to them as business, such as from Local Enterprise Companies. The Group agreed to write to Defra to seek more engagement with the problems, in the context of the partnership aspect of the GB Animal Health and Welfare Strategy.
Action Point 1: SEERAD to examine ways of getting business advice to veterinary practices.
Action Point 2: Secretariat to produce draft letter and circulate to Group members.
Action Point 3: Secretariat to circulate response from President of the BVA to the Chair's letter on 24/7.
7. The Group also looks forward to seeing a report of the Reading event.
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Community Animal Health Policy (CAHP)
8. The Chair said that this item was the main reason for the pressing need to have an Advisory Group meeting at this time, and he gave detail on the conference he attended in Brussels on 7 November to discuss the emerging CAHP. The key points of this were;
- The Commission has been working on this for a couple of years, and has engaged consultants.
- They have identified two key pillars, these being public health and maintaining competitiveness.
- Two further pillars are animal welfare and the environment.
- The Policy will cover all animals, including companion animals and wildlife.
- Will be built on OIE rules so as not to have an impact on trade.
- The Commission feel that industry should lead on biosecurity codes.
- Border security - a team to be set up to support and train border officers on the EU boundaries. Will also work with third countries.
- TRACES database to be linked directly into all member states' systems.
- Research priorities - vaccination and diagnostics.
- Not just cost sharing, also responsibilities. For instance, there could reductions in levies for those with good biosecurity and a "no claims" reduction, though this needs more thought to avoid adverse incentives.
- A Commission paper will follow in 2007 setting out a position for consultation.
9. Ian Anderson, who had also attended, added that cost and responsibility sharing could lead to a new relationship between industry and government, and could prompt de-regulation, better regulation and more involvement in policy development. Discussion among UK rural affairs departments have concluded that there needs to be agreement on guiding principles before details are worked up.
10. The Group noted the direction outlined, and stressed that whatever decisions are reached the policy must be affordable to the industry. It was also noted that a robust measure of biosecurity would be required.
Progress against Disease Priorities
11. Neil Ritchie reminded the Group that we had agreed to tackle the priority diseases through their sectors. He informed the group of the meeting held with sheep stakeholders early in September, which mainly focussed on sheep scab. Education was seen as a key factor in tackling the disease, such as encouraging farmers to be careful when buying in stock.
12. On horses, the group had met with key stakeholder including the British Horse Society to discuss laminitis, and as a result we are preparing a survey to establish incidence, with the best GB figure available being 1.5%.
13. Through discussion the Group questioned the appropriateness of laminitis as a priority disease under the Strategy, commenting that much was known about the disease, the solution lay in educating owners and keepers and other groups were working on the problem. It was noted that strangles appeared to be a more relevant disease for the Group, with a need for basic research. There have been calls to make strangles notifiable, but members questioned whether this might not lead to very difficult restrictions on the sector.
AOB and Future Agenda Items
14. As a result of discussion that had taken place earlier in the day at the Animal Health and Welfare Conference, the Group agreed that some focus needed to be placed on the benchmarking database. There was concern relating to consistency of measurement and that failure to make use of the benchmarking data gathered through the Animal Health and Welfare Management Programme could damage the credibility of the whole scheme and fail to prove its value. It was agreed that this would be an agenda item for the next meeting of the Group and that SEERAD would produce a paper in advance of it outlining the position and difficulties experienced in establishing the database. It was also suggested, in line with comment at the conference, that the scheme could benefit from being simplified and more focussed.
Action Point 4: SEERAD to produce paper on the benchmarking database for the next AG meeting.
15. The Group also agreed that a discussion on the QMS/SAC paper on the disease priorities of farmers should take place at the next meeting.
16. Stuart Reid said that documents being produced by EPTGAH appeared to be influential in the European Commission, particularly in the development of a Community Animal Health Policy, and he agreed to pass these to Secretariat to be distributed to the Group.
Action Point 5: Stuart Reid to pass EPTGAH reports to Secretariat, to be distributed to the Group.
17. The Chair closed the meeting and thanked members for their attendance and contribution, and said that Secretariat would be seeking dates for the next meeting, to be held preferably before 27 January 2007.
AHWSAG Secretariat
December 2006
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