Animal and Plant Disease

The Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic of 2001 attracted an enormous amount of attention in the media and pushed the issue of animal disease up the public agenda.   New diseases such as avian influenza, blue tongue and sudden oak death have also crept into the public consciousness, there is a growing awareness of the human implications of conditions such as Lyme Disease and it seems likely that climate change may be making some diseases more common.  How should farmers and government deal with both new and old problems?  Is current policy the best method, or should we be rethinking our approach? This series of projects takes a new look at the problems and also encourages animal and plant disease researchers to learn from each other.