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SAC leads animal health Centre of Expertise
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead (opens in new window)
SAC is leading a new Centre of Expertise which will provide evidence-based advice for the Scottish Government on reducing the likelihood and minimising the impact of livestock disease outbreaks.
SAC’s Head of Veterinary Epidemiology Professor George Gunn has been appointed Director of the £9 million project. SAC’s experts will join forces with the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Roslin Institute, the Moredun Institute and James Hutton Research Institute to form a world-leading team. Over the next five years they will carry out extensive policy-based research in a number of key areas relating to animal health and welfare.
The Scottish Government has initially provided £1.5 million in funding for the new Centre, the launch of which was announced last week by Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead when he visited SAC’s beef research facility near Edinburgh.
The project will build on the experience and skills developed in the current Centre of Excellence on Epidemiology, Population Health and Infectious Disease Control (EPIC) which was launched in 2006 and is also currently led by SAC. EPIC’s contribution to tackling livestock diseases in Scotland has included supporting and advising the Scottish Government’s response to the 2007 Foot and Mouth outbreak, its introduction of Bluetongue vaccination and efforts to tackle the spread of foulbrood disease in honey bees.
The new Centre of Expertise will focus on the diseases considered to pose the biggest threat to Scotland’s livestock, including Foot and Mouth Disease, Avian Influenza, Classical Swine Fever and African Swine Fever. The team will provide evidence-based advice to enable industry and policymakers to make the best decisions about anticipating, preventing and managing disease incursions. Their research will cover the following five areas:
- The provision of rapid access to emergency advice in the event of disease outbreaks
- Developing greater understanding of the disease risks relating to animal movement
- Analysing potential disease control options
- Developing advice on the implications of disease developments overseas
- Knowledge exchange between the Centre and government, industry and the scientific community
In addition to overseeing the running of the project, SAC has shared responsibility for analysing potential disease control options. This will involve developing a cost-benefit analysis of disease control options for non-native diseases and will include an exploration of the socio-economic consequences of the different options.
The Centre will begin its work in April.
Professor Gunn said: “It’s a rapidly changing world and we are frequently confronted by the increased risk of exotic disease incursions reaching Scotland. This Centre of Expertise will assist the Scottish Government and those in the farming industry to adopt more proactive, evidence based-systems to protect our livestock.”