FMD crisis report highlights shortcomings in port control

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been criticised for the lack of controls at Northern Irish ports that contributed to the spread of foot-and-mouth last year.

The first independent report into the 2001 FMD crisis, compiled by Dr Patricia Clarke for the Centre for Cross-Border Studies, examined the smuggling of infected sheep from Britain on February 19, 2001, which led to the outbreak of the disease in Northern Ireland and the Irish and Stormont government's response to the crisis.

The report criticises the ease with which a "direct for slaughter" certificate could be obtained and highlighted the difficulties of tracing ‘missing’ sheep due to the practice of weighing trucks, coming into Northern Ireland from Britain, to estimate the number of sheep aboard, instead of counting them individually.

The report also compared efforts made by the Irish Government to control the disease at airports and ports, with those enforced in Northern Ireland.

"The protection at entry points against importing infection from Britain was a critical element of the Republic’s overall defence - so much so that the Irish Government provided additional disinfection facilities at British Sea ports, claiming that ‘the British port authorities there were unwilling to do so’, the report stated.

In a joint statement Stormont agriculture minister Bríd Rodgers and her southern counterpart Joe Walsh said they found the report valuable and would take their findings into consideration. However they also said they did not necessarily agree with all the report's contents or with the criticisms contained within it.

The report’s main recommendation suggested that an all-Ireland expert advisory group be established, such as that set up to advise Minister for Agriculture Mr Joe Walsh last year, to become active in any future animal health emergency affecting the whole island.

The report also highlights the benefits of a universal animal ID tagging system, which could have helped to identify animal movements in the fight against FMD on the island.

(AMcE)