09:30 Ben Goldsborough (Labour)

Those viruses are transmitted by aphids, which feed on the sugar beet crops. Unlike growers on the continent, UK farmers are particularly vulnerable to the virus, due to our maritime climate. Typically, cold winters suppress the aphid population, reducing the risk of transmission. Milder winters, driven by climate change, allow aphids to survive for longer and thrive. If the aphids carry over the disease from the previous year to the new year, they can infest crops as early as spring, compounding the threat to the British sugar beet yields.

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09:55 Terry Jermy (Labour)

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship today, Dame Siobhain. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for securing this timely debate. I commend him on the work that he has done since being elected to this House on key matters in this area. It is a timely debate for my constituency as there is a proposal for a mega-farm at Methwold in South West Norfolk. I and residents are concerned about a number of aspects, not least that intensive farming is contributing to biodiversity loss, as well to as climate change and air and water pollution. Very often such farming practices adversely affect people living nearby, especially because of the health hazard posed by ammonia pollution.

I am proud to say that the British Trust for Ornithology headquarters is located in Thetford in my South West Norfolk constituency, and its scientific research and dedication are more important than ever before given the biodiversity loss, climate crisis and biosecurity challenges that we face as a country. That research is critical for our understanding.

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09:59 Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat)

Improving our biosecurity will ensure that we can continue to prevent major infectious disease outbreaks, which are expensive and harm our international reputation, but it will create opportunities too. The two most widely discussed problems in agriculture are business viability and climate change, and what is often forgotten in these conversations is that vaccinations can play a part in supporting both. As we have heard in this debate, diseases such as bluetongue, Schmallenberg virus and avian influenza can lead to stunted growth in livestock. They fail to reproduce, they abort and they are more likely to die. I spoke to a farmer in Barton St David recently, and they told me that that just means more inputs for lower outputs, and for consumers it means more expensive food. He also said that it means more damage to the environment as well.

Research from my alma mater, Harper Adams University, shows that controlling avian influenza reduces greenhouse gas emissions by almost 16% per kilogram of meat without the need for culling. Following several successful campaigns from industry bodies, most livestock farmers now accept the benefits of regular vaccinations and parasite control. However, our inconsistent domestic vaccine capacity is preventing them from doing so. For example, this summer, sheep farmers saw yet another shortage of enzootic abortion vaccinations and continued shortages of orf vaccinations.

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10:26 Daniel Zeichner (Labour)

Biosecurity is vital. It underpins safe food, protects animal and plant health, and supports a prosperous economy and trade. It is a joint endeavour: Government, animal keepers, horticulturists and the public must do everything we can collectively to keep disease out. As we have heard from Members this morning, the costs are significant. Plant diseases alone are estimated to cost the global economy over $220 billion annually, and up to 40% of global crop production is lost to pests each year. Those are huge numbers, and are sadly unlikely to reduce as climate change drives the geographic expansion and the host range of pests and diseases. Healthy plants and animals are not just an important tool in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, but contribute directly to many of the UN’s sustainable development goals—in particular, ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture.

Pests and diseases know no borders. New and emerging threats are often the result of trade and globalisation, and are then further exacerbated by climate change. Safe trade is essential to food security in a thriving economy. We want healthy trade to support food security and the economy, but at the same time we need to protect ourselves from risks. That is why DEFRA is a key delivery Department of the UK biological security strategy, which takes a UK-wide approach that strengthens deterrence and resilience, projects global leadership and exploits opportunities for UK prosperity. In parallel, the environmental improvement plan sets out how we will improve our environment at home and abroad, including through enhancing biosecurity. I can assure the House that we have in place robust measures to maintain and improve our ability to understand, detect, prevent, respond and recover from outbreaks that affect animals and that affect plants.

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