§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Libya, when they will begin a programme to evaluate rapid technologies for testing foot and mouth disease in herds and flocks. [HL4170]
§ Lord WhittyDefra supports a substantial programme of research on FMD, costing approximately £1.5 million per annum. The current programme covers a number of key areas, each of which support Defra policy regarding the control of FMD.
Included within this programme are a number of projects that focus on the development of diagnostic technologies, costing £300,000 per annum. Further development of a real-time RT-PCR test (reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) is being undertaken for rapid, accurate laboratory identification of the foot and mouth disease virus. Other diagnostic techniques include pen-side chromatographic strip tests, which can be used for rapid on-farm diagnosis by detecting FMD virus antigens or antibody. It is important that before any test is used in the field it is fully validated and internationally recognised. The development work includes the validation of these tests.