Introduction
Animal health and welfare policy is fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament, and Scottish Ministers will be responsible for determining the policy response to any animal disease emergency situation.
Given that disease knows no boundaries and that Great Britain is a single epidemiological unit, a co-ordinated disease control approach will be taken across Great Britain. The lead role in any disease outbreak in Scotland will be taken by SEERAD working in close partnership with stakeholders and operational partners.
Listed below are the various Contingency plans that are in place, and more will be added as they are finalised.
Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease
This Scottish Contingency Plan is for use in the event of an outbreak of Avian Influenza (AI) (in both its highly pathogenic form, HPAI, or its low pathogenic form, LPAI) or Newcastle Disease (ND). The two diseases are treated together as they are both viral diseases of birds, showing a similar epidemiology. The Plan is primarily intended for use in an outbreak of disease in farmed poultry rather than in wild birds.
Foot and Mouth Disease
The Plan is written in such a way as to be capable of dealing with a major disease outbreak which could be spread widely across Scotland. The Plan operates within the structure provided by the existing EU-approved GB Contingency Plan.
Communications Strategy
Although this document has been drafted with an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in mind, it is designed to be broadly applicable to animal disease emergencies in general.
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