Background to the report

Animal disease outbreaks are a significant threat to England’s farming sector, to food security, to human health, to rural communities, to animal keepers and to the economy and trade. They can also have a negative impact on wildlife.

Jump to downloads

Past outbreaks have had significant economic impacts. For example, the major foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001 cost the public and private sectors an estimated £5.2 billion and £8.6 billion, respectively (in 2023-24 prices). Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) – commonly known as bird flu – have resulted in 7.2 million birds being culled between November 2020 and mid-March 2025.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has reported outbreaks in 16 of the past 20 years. This includes the UK’s largest HPAI outbreak to date, in winter 2022-23, and concurrent outbreaks of HPAI and bluetongue virus (BTV), which affects sheep, cattle and other ruminants, in 2024-25. Government and industry are also concerned about other exotic diseases such as African swine fever, which is spreading in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

The government’s 2025 National Risk Register (NRR) includes four exotic animal disease outbreaks that would have significant impacts, including economic impacts ranging from hundreds of millions to billions of pounds.

Scope of the report

This report forms part of our ongoing examination of the nation’s resilience to risks in the National Risk Register. It examines whether Defra, working with key public and private bodies, is taking effective action to ensure England is resilient to animal diseases. We have assessed whether:

  • Defra has an effective strategic approach to managing animal diseases, both exotic and endemic
  • Defra, the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) and key public and private bodies are taking appropriate action to prepare for animal disease outbreaks
  • Defra and APHA have responded efficiently and effectively to recent exotic disease outbreaks and are well-placed to respond to future outbreaks
  • Defra and APHA are taking effective action to strengthen long-term resilience to animal diseases

Video summary

Rich Sullivan-Jones, the report director, summarises our findings.

Downloads

Publication details

Press release

View press release (4 Jun 2025)

Related work