EU – David Byrne, European Commissioner for health and consumer protection, has called for an urgent review of present defence systems against any potential bio-terrorist attack on the food chain.

Speaking to EU agriculture ministers in Luxembourg last week, Byrne said that recent events, such as foot and mouth disease and classical swine fever, highlighted the damage which can result from the introduction of viruses to livestock.

“Food production and distribution systems have shown their vulnerability to attack,” he said. “We cannot ignore these warning signs. It is not designed to be alarmist. But we cannot escape the reality that our systems of food and agriculture production could be vulnerable to bio-terrorism.”

Byrne has already met with EU health ministers to urge closer co-operation in this area. He has also met with Ann Veneman, the US agriculture secretary, and visited the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta which leads the US efforts in its defences against communicable diseases.

Byrne identified the need to co-operate on key issues such as what drugs and vaccines are available to deal with the most dangerous threats of bio-terrorism, and what quantities exist, where they are stored and how quickly they can be made available. Byrne also mentioned the possibility of creating an agency, like that in the USA, designed to focus on communicable diseases. “I was deeply struck at how much more under-developed we are in this area than the United States,” he said. “The budget for the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta