Post-Brexit trade deals could pose the biggest peacetime threat to the UK's food security if welfare standards and farmers are not protected, MPs say. Imports of food produced with lower welfare standards should not be allowed, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agro-ecology warns.
Bird flu on a duck farm in northern England is the highly contagious H5N8 strain, the same form of the virus already discovered in Germany and the Netherlands, Britain's farm ministry confirmed on Tuesday.
A vaccine to protect sheep and cattle from a virus spread by midges has been approved by UK government vets. The virus, which emerged in the Netherlands and Germany in 2011, can lead to sheep and cattle having stillborn or deformed offspring.