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Animal health body merges with Fera teams
The AHVLA has merged with four teams from Fera.
New Animal and Plant Health Agency launches today

As of today (October 1), the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) will change its name as it merges with four teams from the Food and Environment Agency (Fera).

The new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is responsible for safeguarding animal and plant health. It will work to prevent pests, diseases and invasive non-native species from entering the UK.

Heading up the APHA is Chris Hadkiss, former chief executive of AHVLA. It is made up of the AHVLA and four teams from Fera - the National Bee Inspectorate, the Plants Health and Seeds Inspectorate, the Plant Variety and Seeds Group and the GM Inspectorate. Fera as an organisation will continue, but without these inspectorate functions.

According to the new organisation, merging the AHVLA and Fera teams will make it easier for animal and plant health inspectors to work together in times of disease emergency.

Environment minister Lord de Mauley commented: "Bringing together animal and plant health inspection functions in the Animal and Plant Health Agency makes very good sense. It will enable joined up working on plant and animal diseases and pests, and will increase our resilience and flexibility to respond to emergencies."

Contact telephone numbers and helplines will remain the same and the AHPA will operate from the same field offices, investigation centres, laboratories and border inspection posts.

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RCVS Knowledge appoints Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence.

A world-renowned expert in evidence-based veterinary medicine, Prof Cockcroft will lead the strategic development and editorial quality of the open-access journal. He was previously in the role from 2017-2020.

Katie Mantell, CEO of RCVS Knowledge, said: "We are excited about the extensive knowledge of evidence-based veterinary medicine and clinical veterinary research that Peter brings, and we look forward to working with him over this next phase of the journal's development." 

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CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.