{"id":62875,"date":"2015-10-15T08:39:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T08:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=260a5b9044c886f7255956b919c84d43"},"modified":"2015-10-15T08:39:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T08:39:32","slug":"news-story-protecting-the-nation-from-animal-diseases-for-150-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=62875","title":{"rendered":"News story: Protecting the nation from animal diseases for 150 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>From combatting diseases such as foot and mouth disease to helping the UK secure multi-million pound trade deals, today marks the 150th anniversary of government veterinary services.<\/p>\n<p>The first UK veterinary service was set up on 15 October 1865 when the government established the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council to tackle a devastating outbreak of cattle plague (rinderpest), a highly infectious disease that caused the loss of around 400,000 animals. <\/p>\n<p>In the intervening years, government vets have successfully controlled or eradicated a succession of disease challenges to animal and public health. <\/p>\n<p>Recent examples include BSE in the late 1980s, an unprecedented outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 and three avian influenza cases in England in the last 12 months. <\/p>\n<p>Today, most government veterinary services are delivered through the Animal Health and Plant Health Agency (APHA). <\/p>\n<p>The range of activities delivered by government vets includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>disease surveillance \u2013 tracking diseases across the world and providing advice to the livestock keepers on disease risk<\/li>\n<li>providing animal health and welfare advice \u2013 working with farmers to improve biosecurity and ensuring that animal welfare is protected on farm and during transport<\/li>\n<li>eradicating bovine TB &#8211; government vets are in the front line of eradicating the disease, providing advice to farmers on reducing their TB risk and managing new cases<\/li>\n<li>identifying and eradicating exotic diseases \u2013 such as the 3 cases of avian flu in the last 12 months, which were all contained quickly to minimise impact on the farming industry and allow trade to resume<\/li>\n<li>enhancing our reputation of our food and farming industries \u2013 our vets play a crucial role in demonstrating our effective disease control measures to other countries, a vital element in securing new trade agreements such as the 2012 agreement with China to export pork products which is now generating \u00a330m each year for the UK economy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nigel Gibbens, UK Chief Veterinary Officer, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The history of state veterinary medicine is founded on protection of animals in agriculture, the food supply and human health, based on a strong foundation of veterinary science. Our work has expanded significantly from these roots, to a modern emphasis on threat identification and mitigation \u2013 protection and prevention being better than cure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The veterinary profession plays a crucial role in protecting the nation from disease threats, and therefore allowing our food and farming industry to thrive.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>State veterinary medicine is a profession that is well-equipped to meet modern challenges, supported by the United Kingdom\u2019s world-leading veterinary science. The focus is now on prevention and preparedness, looking to avoid the need to control and eradicate animal disease. <\/p>\n<p>Government vets also protect public health, for example controlling salmonella in poultry, and supporting food security and the competitiveness of the United Kingdom\u2019s livestock and related sectors. <\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/storify.com\/APHAgovuk\/svm150\">Find out more about key milestones in the history of state veterinary medicine<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Animal and Plant Health Agency marks the 150th anniversary of UK state veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}