Foot and mouth IT systems need improvement, warn MPs

MPs have warned that farming IT systems must be improved to manage any future outbreak of livestock disease, following the disastrous handling of the foot and mouth epidemic in 2001.

The foot and mouth clean-up cost the UK £2.7bn in vaccination, culling and compensation costs. Taxpayers were landed with much of that bill after the European Commission quashed nearly two-thirds of the UK's £1bn claim for reimbursement of the costs.

The latest Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report by MPs into the foot and mouth outbreak says not enough progress has been made by the Department for Education, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in preparing for any future disease outbreaks.

The report said: "The department should establish adequate information technology systems to assist in the management of future disease outbreaks."

Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the PAC, said it is "entirely unacceptable" that if another outbreak occurred tomorrow the taxpayer would end up shouldering the bill once again.

He said in the report: "The department is better prepared today than it was four years ago for an outbreak. But it is vital that it complete the good work already done on its contingency plans and improve the IT needed to support disease control operations."

Leigh said the importance of applying the lessons learnt without delay are vital in light of the current threat of bird flu, which could potentially lead to the slaughter of thousands of animals.