![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/uk-zoonotic-research-site-left-to-deteriorate/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127643435_gettyimages-1208691882.jpg&description=Image source, JONGHO SHINThe UK's main facility for dealing with viruses that jump from animals to humans has been left to "deteriorate to an alarming extent," according to MPs.The Public Affairs Committee report cited "inadequate management and under-investment" at the site in Weybridge.It said the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) had "comprehensively failed in its historical management" of the centre. Defra said work was already underway to upgrade the laboratories.The centre is operated by the government's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). It is central to the UK's ability to control the outbreak of animal diseases and detect any emerging pathogens.The Public Accounts Committee found more than "1,000 single points of failure" at the Weybridge site. Its report said deterioration had left the laboratories "continually vulnerable to a major breakdown" which would severely impact the UK's ability to effectively respond to outbreaks. Some of the deadliest viruses on earth are "zoonotic diseases" that cross between species such as Covid-19, Sars or Ebola.The report said the risk to the UK of a zoonotic disease was "real and the consequences can be devastating", and accused the government of not sufficiently prioritising this threat to "UK health, trade, farming and rural communities."Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said: "After the 2001 disaster of foot and mouth disease, the past decades have brought one animal-sourced disease after another. "It is shocking that government has allowed UK capacity in this area to deteriorate so alarmingly over that same period," she said. "These diseases are devastating for our food production systems, the economy and, when they jump the species barrier to humans as Covid-19 did, to our whole society."Image source, BBC/Tim NicholsonImage caption, A ranger at a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reserve removes the carcasses of two dead swans, thought to be infected with avian fluThe UK and EU are currently in t){kind=link}
The UK’s main facility for dealing with viruses that jump from animals to humans has been left to “deteriorate to an alarming extent,” according to MPs.
The Public Affairs Committee report cited “inadequate management and under-investment” at the site in Weybridge.
It said the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) had “comprehensively failed in its historical management” of the centre.
Defra said work was already underway to upgrade the laboratories.
The centre is operated by the government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). It is central to the UK’s ability to control the outbreak of animal diseases and detect any emerging pathogens.