Animal diseases: evaluating risks through international trade
Assessing the likelihood of introducing animal diseases to Great Britain through the trade of live animals and animal products.
Defra assesses and evaluates the:
- risk of animal diseases coming into Great Britain through the trade of live animals and animal products
- measures that other countries have put in place to stop the spread of animal disease through traded animals and animal products
Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) also monitor major, notifiable or new and emerging animal disease outbreaks worldwide.
Risk assessments
Defra assesses the risk of introducing animal diseases into Great Britain through the international trade of animals and animal products. We use the International Disease Monitoring Plus (IDM+) tool to assess these risks.
Risk assessments help to make sure that this trade can be done safely, including from countries which have different disease statuses from Great Britain’s.
Where needed, they’re used to place restrictions on trade during international disease outbreaks.
Audit reports
Defra evaluates trading partners’ compliance with Great Britain’s animal health and food safety requirements and international standards. This helps to prevent the introduction and spread of animal diseases and public health risks.
Audit reports are a tool we use to:
- review the systems and official controls that trading partners have in place
- assess how effectively those systems are implemented
- evaluate compliance with Great Britain’s import requirements
- make recommendations for how official controls can be improved or maintained
- review and agree the action plans that trading partners put in place to address our recommendations