LIVESTOCK farmers have joined forces in opposition to government plans to launch a new independent body to take over animal health operations.

The main organisations representing the farmers in the industry have linked up to urge the Government to change its new approach to disease control in cattle. The National Beef Association, Tenant Farmers Association, Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, British Egg Industry Council, British Poultry Council, Livestock Auctioneers Association and the Game Farmers Association have written to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs..

National Beef Association director Kim Haywood said: “The Defra proposals are an ill-advised kneejerk reaction to the cost it faced during the 2001 FMD outbreak and are already almost nine years out of date.

“It has ignored the relative success of the joint industry-government Core Stakeholder Groups, which protected livestock farmers from even greater hardship during the 2007 FMD outbreak, and then helped to ensure there were no new internal outbreaks of bluetongue in England during 2008, but cost farmers nothing to run.

“And it prefers instead to hoist either a distant, non-ministerial, Food Standards Agency style disease control board, whose funds would be directly controlled by HM Treasury and therefore be very likely to be quickly reduced and replaced by huge rises in compulsory levy.”