Teleconference meeting with consumer representatives: 27th November 2007
Present
- Susan Knox: Chair, Foodaware, Member, Veterinary Residues Committee
- Dilwen Phillips: Chair, Consumer Committee of Women’s Food and Farming Union, Member, Sheep Scrapie Steering Group
- Jill Moss: Bella Moss Foundation, Member, Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination Group
- Diane McCrea: Consumer member, England Implementation Group and Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee
Ann Davison – Consumer Engagement Advisor (Chair)
Officials
- Alison Reeves: Deputy director: Exotic disease policy
- Nick Coulson: Acting assistant Chief Veterinary Officer
Welcome and Introductions
Ann Davison (AD) thanked the consumer group for attending and for their good wishes to Debby Reynolds on her retirement from Defra. It was noted that Fred Landeg was the acting CVO and Alick Simmons was the new deputy CVO. Alick had agreed to speak at Foodaware’s meeting on the 6th December.
Feedback on results of teleconferences
Alison Reeves (AR) thanked the group for their views from meetings on the disease outbreaks we’d had. Comments from the meetings had been passed immediately to the CVO to help pitch Defra’s messages. Consumer representatives had provided positive feedback about the use of technical experts to front media interviews.
Consumer representatives had confirmed that foot and mouth disease (fmd) was not a food safety concern. Defra welcomed their contribution and said consumer confidence had not been affected by the outbreak. Defra fed back that the consumer group had helped prioritise messages on the Defra website such as making clear the difference between confirmed cases and those being checked at an earlier stage.
Avian Influenza (AI)
Concern was not being expressed to the consumer representatives by their members. They felt it was worth repeating the evidence that the risk of catching the disease came from being in close and prolonged contact with live poultry that had the disease, and not through eating properly cooked poultry or eggs.
Alison Reeves advised that the numbers culled were very small when compared with the industry as a whole and should not impact on Christmas supplies. It was noted that prices might be higher due to other factors, e.g. increase in feed costs.
The consumer representatives expressed concern about how wild bird transmission of AI could possibly be prevented in future. Nick Coulson replied that studies of wild birds had shown no increase in die-off and sampling had shown negative results. There was always a low risk of introduction by wild birds, but bird keepers should work on the principle to keep poultry isolated from wild birds as much as possible. Alison Reeves said that good bio-security advice had been available to poultry keepers for several years.
Latest State of Play
Five ‘dangerous contact’ premises had been identified based on their contacts with the Infected premises . Culling at these five had been completed and the last of the results were expected from the labs the next day. Investigation of the surrounding areas was now taking place, with sampling of ducks and geese as a priority because they could carry infection without it being obvious. If these results continued to come in negative, restrictions could be relaxed. Testing of culled flocks was done on a sampling basis. All sampling, apart from on the two original infected premises, had been negative for AI.
On the source of the AI outbreak, Nick Coulson said that Defra aimed to release the preliminary epidemiology report this week. Determining the source of the outbreak was a process of elimination of possibilities. Once all others were eliminated it ended with wild birds. The report would be circulated to the consumer representatives: http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2007/071129a.htm.
Public signs
The consumer representatives had expressed some confusion about fmd protection zone signs. This was probably less of a problem for AI. Signs about AI were less apparent since the movement of poultry was not as common as that of cattle herds.
The Local Authorities Coordinating Office on Regulatory Services and Surrey County Council had during the September outbreak erected advice on open footpaths about the need not to stray near livestock . There would be an internal Defra “Lessons Learned” exercise , as was now always the case after a disease outbreak, and these points would be included.
Next meeting
The next meeting of Defra with the consumer representatives was planned for the 31st January 2008, Nobel House.
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May 23, 2008
Page published:
May 23, 2008