Britain: government cuts funding as bird flu outbreak is confirmed

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the leading government body in monitoring and taking action in response to reported outbreaks of bird flu amongst wild or domestic birds. Its ability to perform the role is being undermined by budget cuts of more than £270 million.

A Guardian newspaper report noted, “The measures at Defra have become necessary, in part, because the department has been overwhelmed by huge bills for a series of disasters, from the foot and mouth outbreak to blunders over the payments of billions of pounds of EU cash to farmers. The ministry’s management board was told this week that it had to find an additional £270m from its main budget on top of savings agreed only a month ago.”