Vet service "was neglected"

The foot and mouth crisis has shown that cuts in scientific support to agriculture are a "false economy", says the IPMS union which represents staff at the State Veterinary Service.

The service has seen its veterinary officers cut to 273, from over 400 at the start of the last foot and mouth epidemic in 1967. The union's journal, IPMS Bulletin, reports that staff are now working between 60 and 85 hours a week. Negotiator Geraldine O'Connell says it is time to reverse "years of neglect " of the service.

Meanwhile UNISON, which represents inspectors in the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS), has called for a parliamentary debate on the government's plan to deregulate meat inspection. National officer Ben Priestley said: "If the farm at the centre of the foot and mouth crisis had been visited regularly by independent meat inspectors this crisis may have been prevented, or at the very least, contained much earlier".