The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has welcomed last week’s Government promise to spend £65 million on laboratories, with the added comment that it would also be good to hear how a vet-related pledge from 12 months ago is progressing.
The association’s £65m welcome followed the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) announcement by Environment Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, that the promised capital spend is earmarked for laboratory improvements and upgrading the bio-containment facilities at Weybridge.
“We welcome the ongoing commitment to improve the UK’s resilience to threats to animal health,” said BVA President, Sean Wensley. “It is encouraging to see the development of state of the art diagnostic facilities and we look forward to hearing more detail about how Surveillance 2014 will work in practice.”
He then took the opportunity to add a reminder concerning a government promise released 12 months ago, during OFC 2014.
“We need further detail on how Defra will meet the pledge made at last year’s conference to protect the number of vets working on the ground in order to provide the vital first line of surveillance,” he said.