A new foot and mouth disease contingency plan called 'Exercise Blackthorn' will roll out across the UK to prepare the UK for an outbreak of the disease.
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland government departments are working together to run a national foot and mouth disease simulation exercise.
While the risk of foot and mouth disease arriving in the UK remains low, the aim of Exercise Blackthorn is to test all current contingency plans for a national outbreak of the disease.
It will establish the current state of readiness whilst identifying issues and improvements in policies, plans, instructions, structures and recovery procedures employed in managing an outbreak.
'Medium to large outbreak'
The Exercise will simulate a medium to large scale outbreak that has spread from England to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The first simulation exercise will be held today (8 February 2018) where suspicion of foot and mouth disease is simulated.
A further table-top exercise will take place on 8 March 2018 followed by a real-time exercise on 25 and 26 April 2018.
Exercise Blackthorn will end on 7 June 2018 in a final table-top exercise where the simulated outbreak will be investigated to the point of disease eradication and recovery aspects considered.
'Low but ever present'
The UK Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said regularly testing contingency plans and joining up across the UK is an "important part" of assuring capability to respond to disease outbreaks.
"Exercises like this provide an opportunity for teams across government and industry to engage and to learn lessons in a controlled and safe environment," Mr Gibbens explained.
"The risk of foot and mouth disease arriving in the UK is low but ever present. Government monitors disease outbreaks and incidence around the world assessing risk for the UK and taking action to mitigate risk where possible."
The EU Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Directive 2003/85/EC requires Member States to exercise their contingency plans twice within a five year period or during the five years period after the outbreak of a major epizootic disease has been effectively controlled and eradicated.
An exercise evaluation report will be published in the autumn 2018.
