Animal disease outbreaks (like foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, or bluetongue) and endemic diseases (eg bovine TB, Salmonella) can be costly to industry and government as well as a threat to public health in some cases. There is a need to manage the overall risk and costs of diseases to industry, government and the wider economy; and make sure investment in disease prevention and management is effective and delivers value for money.

Animal Health and Welfare Board for England

The Animal Health and Welfare Board will for the first time bring together experts (including farmers, veterinarians, welfare experts and others from outside Government together with Defra’s Chief Veterinary Officer) to make direct recommendations to ministers on policy affecting the health and welfare of all kept animals such as farm animals, horses and pets. The Board met for the first time on 8 November.

• Animal Health and Welfare Board for England

Responsibility and Cost Sharing – background

Defra currently spends £330 million annually on animal health and has to meet the additional costs of any disease outbreaks in England, Scotland and Wales. The main arguments for sharing responsibility for dealing with animal disease with animal keepers are:

• Effective engagement of all those responsible for managing animal disease risks will improve policies and allow for greater ownership by all those involved in their implementation.
• The need to reduce annual public expenditure while managing the risk of disease (and to meet the costs of outbreaks when they occur).
• The prospect of new EU policy in coming years (other countries already have cost sharing arrangements).

The Responsibility and Cost Sharing Advisory Group

The Animal Health and Welfare Board has been created based on the findings from the Independent Responsibility and Cost Sharing Advisory Group chaired by Rosemary Radcliffe, which published the findings of their work on how animal keepers can play a greater role on tackling animal disease on 13 December 2010:

• Responsibility and Cost Sharing for Animal Health and Welfare – Final report
• Foreword and Executive summary (PDF 300 KB)
• Questions and answers (PDF 40 KB)
• More about the Advisory Group

Facts and figures

• Defra’s expenditure on animal health for 2009-10 is around £356 million (the figure for 2010/11 is expected shortly). There is no contingency for the additional costs of disease outbreaks.
• Individual animal disease outbreaks can be very costly, e.g. the Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001 cost the UK £8 billion.
• Endemic diseases are also costly, e.g. Bovine TB costs Defra around £63m per year.
• Notifiable diseases can be costly to industry and government as well as a threat to public health in some cases. When there is evidence of notifiable disease, the EU imposes export bans with serious consequences for the competitiveness of the livestock industry.
• An assessment of the risk of exotic disease outbreaks, taking account of the current risk reduction measures, concluded that the long-run average annual cost of dealing with such outbreaks is around £50m for Government and £100m to industry. This average includes years where there will be no outbreaks/costs and years with much higher costs from outbreaks. There is a wide range of uncertainty around this estimate.

Contact us

If you have any queries about responsibility and cost sharing, or feedback on the information on this page, please email rcsharing@defra.gsi.gov.uk.