Spanish
The British Government announced this Tuesday the investment of 1 billion pounds sterling (equivalent to 1.167 billion euros or 1.347 billion dollars) in the construction of a new National Biosecurity Centre, which will be located in Surrey, south of London. The initiative seeks to reinforce the country's health and economic protection against potential biological threats.
The ambitious project will include a state-of-the-art scientific campus, with a focus on safeguarding food security and defending agricultural holdings against diseases that could impact both animals and humans.
"Without a modern biosecure infrastructure, outbreaks could compromise agricultural production, affect rural communities, and endanger essential supply chains," warned the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in the official statement.
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The new center will strengthen the surveillance, detection, and control of high-risk animal diseases, such as avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, or African swine fever, as well as improve the ability to respond to multiple simultaneous outbreaks. The Executive also noted that the center will address all potential biological threats, including those from hostile nations, and will allow the UK to continue leading international efforts in disease prevention and containment. The statistics cited by the Government underscore the urgency of investment: around 60% of human infectious diseases have an animal origin, and nearly 75% of emerging diseases are zoonotic. "This makes prevention a vital issue for human health and safety," said the Executive. The Environment Minister, Steve Reed, lamented that the laboratories inherited from the previous Conservative government were in poor condition and stressed that the country would be in greater danger if action was not taken immediately.
