Transparency data

FHI Quarterly Report - 1 October to 31 December 2018

Updated 28 March 2019

Applies to England and Wales

1. Finfish, Shellfish and Amphibian health

The inspection programmes on Aquaculture Production Businesses (APB’s) for compliance with Aquatic Animal Health Regulations, and for aquatic animal health surveillance, were completed for 2018 during this quarter. The main emphasis of the early autumn programme is surveillance on farms holding SVC susceptible species. Fish farms in England and Wales remain free from this disease. Surveillance for SVC has continued at one infected fishery located in the West Midlands, with no further signs of infection in the fish stocks. Should the fishery remain clear of infection, statutory controls will be removed in 2019 and Great Britain will again be fully free from this disease.

Levels of statutory compliance by fish farming businesses remain excellent, with most non-compliances restricted to minor administrative issues which were generally resolved through the provision of advice. No finfish farming businesses were prosecuted for non-compliance in 2018. Levels of compliance with conditions of confirmed designation have improved with excellent cooperation and a wider appreciation of the need for good biosecurity from the fisheries sector.

Disease surveillance programmes in the shellfish sector indicated that infection with the listed protozoan parasite, Bonamia ostreae remains stable with no additional geographical spread of infection. B.ostreae continues to affect the main native oyster Ostreae edulis growing areas, and is a contributory factor in limiting the progress of native oyster regeneration schemes. The listed protozoan parasite, Marteilia refringens is restricted to infection in edible mussel Mytilus edulis populations in a single estuary system. Statutory compliance across the shellfish aquaculture sector remains high, with few non-compliances identified, all of which were resolved through advice. There were no prosecutions of shellfish farms in 2018.

In 2010 the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations was enacted (subsequently updated in 2017). This is a broad piece of legislation revising and replacing other legislative instruments on the protection of species. The Regulations require that competent authorities must undertake an assessment (a habitats regulations assessment (HRA) of the potential impact of developments in the marine environment that may impact upon sites subject to European conservation measures such as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC’s). In 2010, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) exempted the deposit and removal of any shellfish, trestle, cage, pole, rope, marker or line in the course of propagation and cultivation of shellfish from the requirement for a marine licence, although the requirement to notify the MMO of any such activity was retained. Due to this exemption, many shellfish farming activities were not incorporated into marine spatial planning processes. This has recently been recognised as an area that may be made more cost effective and efficient. In November, Defra published a public consultation on the removal of this exemption, and should this legislative change be accepted by Defra Ministers, new shellfish farms located in European conservation sites, and existing farms that intend to expand their activities, would require a marine licence prior to any development. Progress has continued with the development of a national policy for the farming of Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas in England. Defra has organised meetings with officials from Natural England and from the Cefas FHI in order to establish a national approach to the farming of this species, whilst affording appropriate protection to natural habitats. An application to farm Pacific oysters in a location that was known to be free from the presence of wild populations of Pacific oysters was rejected by the FHI, following advice from Defra and Natural England.

2. Disease Investigations – Finfish

As has been found to be the case in recent years, the number of reported disease outbreaks in coarse fish species declined as water temperatures fell in early autumn. In 2018, there were 23 KHV disease outbreaks in managed fisheries, all occurring during the period June to September, with no further outbreaks during autumn.

During December the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) received two reports from authorised importers of significant mortalities in high value koi imported from Japan, with full health attestations. On investigation the fish exhibited necrotic patches on the gills indicative of KHV disease. The disease was confirmed in koi from both importers by PCR and gene sequencing. The fish stocks on both sites were culled and the facilities underwent a supervised disinfection. Details of the imports were provided to the Japanese authorities through a letter from the Chief Veterinary Officer for the UK.

Further progress has been made on the characterisation of the disease observed on a rainbow trout farm in Southern England, that resulted in 100% of fish exhibiting progressive deformity of the head. The condition has been named as cranial maxilla fibrosis (CMF). Histological examination has shown that the swelling around the head has proven to be inflammation of connective tissue. Further work is underway to establish the cause of the condition.

3. Disease investigations – Shellfish and Amphibians

Concerns have been expressed by conservation bodies about the risk of the spread of invasive non-native species, such as the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis, with movements of mussel seed for relaying. Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authorities (IFCA’s) are responsible for controls on the movement of seed mussel in England. North-West IFCA has published a biosecurity measures plan that includes appropriate measures for reducing the risk of the introduction and spread of invasive non-native species.

3.1 Breakdown of Fish activities

Activity	Number
Compliance visits to authorised APBs	99
Routine disease inspections	80
Surveillance or sample on suspicion of notifiable disease	10
Visits resulting from confirmation of notifiable disease	15
Authorisation inspections	53

3.2 Breakdown of Shellfish activities

Activity	Number
Compliance visits to authorised APBs	51
Routine disease inspections	28
Surveillance on suspicion of notifiable disease	2
Visits resulting from confirmation of notifiable disease	4
Authorisation inspections	5

4. Investigations and Enforcement

In 2009 as a result of a serious decline in European eel populations the species was listed on Appendix II to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and Annex B of Council Regulation 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein. Consequently, no export from or import into the EU of eels is permitted. However, the illegal trade in juvenile eels continues to be a cause of concern across European countries that allow harvesting of migrating elvers for restocking purposes. Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, launched Operation Lake in 2015 as an initiative to combat the trafficking of endangered species in the EU. This initiative has resulted in significant successes with prosecutions for traffickers in live eels in several EU member states including Spain, Portugal and the UK. Intelligence submitted by investigators in the UK has made a significant contribution to the available data on trafficking of eels and has facilitated several new investigations.

The FHI participates in a biennial desk-based contingency exercise on aquatic animal health controls organised by Cefas epidemiologists and involving representatives from Defra, the devolved administrations, other Government Agencies such as the Environment Agency, and trade organisations such as the British Trout Association (BTA). In 2018, contingency exercise Galatea took place, focussing upon testing lines of communication during a disease outbreak. Since the completion of this exercise significant progress has been made in improving contingency provisions through a ‘lessons-learned’ process. Working with colleagues in the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), contingency procedures have been brought into better alignment to facilitate efficiencies and clear roles and responsibilities, in particular when a scaling-up response to an exotic disease incursion is required. A review of draft press notices, Q & A briefings, and information leaflets has been undertaken, and the FHI is working with Welsh Government to ensure that essential documents are available in the Welsh language.

The FHI has continued to participate in EU working groups on new Animal Health Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/429), which was adopted in March 2016. This Regulation provides a framework for both terrestrial animal and aquatic animal health controls across the EU. The European Commission intends to have all tertiary legislation completed by April 2019, and full adoption by member states by 2021. The frequency of working group meetings has significantly increased over recent months as delegated and implementing acts are considered by representatives of member states. Representatives of the FHI have participated fully in this process and have contributed to significant improvements in the draft legislation. This will improve animal health controls across the European Union and so protect the high aquatic animal health status of the UK.

The last quarter saw a significant increase in preparations for EU-exit, with the main emphasis being on the transfer of essential legal functions from EU legislation into UK law, to ensure that statutory controls on aquatic animal health are maintained following EU-exit. Preparations for leaving the EU in the event of a no-deal exit have also dramatically increased. The FHI, the devolved administrations and the Crown Dependencies contributed to the draft application for trade in live aquatic animals from the United Kingdom to the EU. This is the first stage in obtaining recognition for the UK as a third country for trading purposes. Information on the aquatic animal health status of the UK has also been prepared for submission to the European Commission as a part of a larger exercise covering all notifiable animal diseases.

4.1 Breakdown of investigations and enforcement activities

Activity	Number
Regulation notices	19
Advice and warning letters issued	3
Enforcement notice	4
Unannounced visits	9

5. Advice and Representation

The Head of the FHI acted as a facilitator at the Defra Group International Science Event ‘Realising the potential for ‘One Health’ international science in human, livestock, aquatic animal, and plant health in Defra and beyond’ that took place at the Royal Society, London on 15 October 2018. This event also saw the launch of the Cefas International Centre of Excellence for Aquatic Animal Health. The Centre unites the joint expertise of over 80 specialists in research, diagnostics, surveillance, modelling, policy and advice related to aquatic animal health. Focussed on the role that health and disease plays in wild and farmed aquatic host populations, the work programme supports both the protection of natural capital and, the increasing role that sustainable aquaculture will play in global food security.

The GB wildlife diseases surveillance partnership autumn meeting took place in December at the APHA Weybridge laboratory. This was followed by a conference organised by APHA on ‘20 years of national wildlife disease surveillance.’ The FHI was represented at the meeting and conference by a member of the FHI.

A member of the FHI represented Cefas at Defra’s Veterinary Risk Group meeting where they updated the group on the detection of eel rhabdovirus in England. The Group requested additional information on this detection which was provided by the FHI.

Members of the FHI met with a Senior Fisheries Analysist from the Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand, to exchange information on the approach to fish and shellfish disease controls in the UK and in New Zealand.

A member of the FHI presented an introduction to Cefas and aquatic animal health controls at the APHA Disease Emergency Response Committee (DERC) meeting in December. This committee is charged with ensuring laboratory preparedness in the event of an outbreak of a notifiable disease in terrestrial animals. Cefas has been invited to attend future meetings.

The Head of the FHI delivered a presentation on aquatic animal health controls in the UK to representatives of the Vietnam Institute of Fisheries, Economics and Planning, the Space Technology Institute, and the Ministry of Science and Technology during a visit to the Cefas Weymouth laboratory.

A member of the FHI attended a conference on new viral diseases in the aquaculture of cyprinid fish hosted by the University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic.

A member of the FHI attended the Defra disease surveillance day that took place in October at the Farmers Club, London, where information on statutory and non-statutory disease surveillance regimes in the animal health sector was exchanged and the FHI delivered a presentation on surveillance for aquatic animal diseases.

The annual operations and policy meeting attended by the Defra Deputy Director, Animal and Plant Health, took place in November where the Head of the FHI presented an overview of aquatic animal health for 2018 and delivered an update on recent developments in the Office International des Epizooties OIE aquatic animal health commission.

The FHI also assisted Defra in gathering data for submission in advance of an internal audit of the policy area in relation to the effectiveness of Defra processes, monitoring of compliance, and the management of risk around aquatic animal health, as required under the Official Food and Feed Regulations (Regulation (EU) 2017/625).

6. Customer Surveys

The Fish Health Inspectorate want to provide all of our customers with excellent service. To check this, regular feedback is requested by using 3 different surveys:

• customer Thermometer is a monthly customer feedback gathering online survey. The FHI use this to target customers visited by our inspectors during the preceding month. Feedback from customers is on a 1 to 4 scale (1: Bad / 4: Excellent) and allow operators to provide additional comments.
• a paper survey is sent to operators who don’t respond to the electronic survey or who don’t have email addresses. These surveys are undertaken in July and December.
• the FHI’s ATTA team use an email survey method to get feedback on advice. This is added as an email signature and has four buttons: ranging from “Excellent” to “Bad”. Customers can also provide comments.

Negative feedback and complaints from any of these surveys is followed up on receipt, following the FHI’s Service Charter. Survey results form part of the key performance indicators and are presented at FHI and Cefas monthly management team meetings.

6.1 Customer Thermometer – October to December

Targeted	104
Response Rate	44%
Excellent	95%
Good	5%
Average	0%
Bad	0%

6.2 Email survey – July to September

Responses	45
Excellent	33
Good	12
Average	0
Bad	0

7. Service charter

Below is a breakdown of our performance against targets in our service charter.

Telephone enquiries received	635
Email enquiries	2,700
Movement document applications	92
Fishery and AAH registrations	126
Overall compliance rate within target	97%

A full breakdown of the FHI’s performance under the service charter is available in Finfish News.

8. Trade

8.1 Imports

The total number of aquatic trade consignments imported into England and Wales from other EU countries in the last quarter was 134. The breakdown is as follows:

Country	Number
Denmark	4
Eire	5
France	32
Germany	2
Greece	5
Guernsey	5
Iceland	2
Isle of Man	5
Jersey	33
Netherlands	22
Northern Ireland	1
Norway	9
Poland	4
Portugal	1
Spain	4

8.2 Exports

The total number of aquatic trade consignments exported from England and Wales to countries in the EU in the last quarter was 77. The breakdown is as follows:

Country	Number
Dubai	1
Eire	42
France	16
Germany	3
Guernsey	4
Isle of Man	4
Jersey	3
Netherlands	1
Northern Ireland	1
Russia	1
Switzerland	1