Arable matters by Brian Henderson

There’s a fair chance you missed 'Contagion!, the BBC Four pandemic', which, despite having a slightly sensational edge, was a fairly worrying science-based documentary highlighting just how at-risk the UK’s human population is from a serious nationwide outbreak of flu.

For, while we all might view global terrorism, the rise of a whole selection of unstable world leaders and the more extreme effects of climate change as the huge potential threats facing our nation, the official number one threat to the country is, in fact, a major outbreak of influenza sweeping the country.

And while that might come as a surprise, it really shouldn’t because, as the programme pointed out, it’s a threat which has stepped into reality several times, even over the past century.

One of the biggest and worst outbreaks of this disease was in the immediate aftermath of World War One – and that pandemic of Spanish flu is widely believed to have killed more than 100m people across the globe, far more than the conflict itself.

The programme did highlight how quickly any disease could spread through the population nowadays in this era of mass transport and daily commutes across the country, especially if it was a new strain with little in the way of natural resistance out there.

But, of course, we humans aren’t the only things out there to be struck down by disease and pestilence. And it has to be said that the animal disease monitoring and surveillance systems which we have in play across the UK – and particularly in Scotland – have often stood the country in good stead for any immediate threat.

True, the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001 might have highlighted some of the flaws which had come into the system in more modern times of market centralisation and widespread road travel.

In recent years, though, some of the information and insights on disease patterns of such newcomers as Schmallenberg and Bluetongue have given the industry a wee breathing space in which to get itself into at least some state of readiness to meet the new and exotic with at least the possibility of a vaccine or a control strategy in place.

But – and finally getting round to something more relevant to the arable section of the newspaper – the crops, grasslands, vegetables, fruits, berries, forests and other plants upon which we rely so heavily are also under constant threat.

And again the modern world – with increasing globalisation of trade, internet sales, personal imports and climate change – means there has been a considerable escalation in the chances of new pests and diseases not only being brought into the country, but also spreading quickly across it.

So, it is heartening to know that Scotland is to the forefront in global terms in as far as we now have a Centre for Plant Health excellence – which operates along the same lines as some of our other disease and pest monitoring and surveillance services.

Offering an early warning and rapid response facility, this new centre, launched only six weeks ago, is designed to offer a single point of contact to give access to a network of knowledge, expertise and practical advice in the event of any major threat to the country’s plant health.

Outlining the role of the facility at a meeting last week of the Scottish Society of Crop Research, Professor Ian Toth, of the James Hutton Research Institute, who also serves as director of the new centre said that there were over a thousand pests and diseases on the UK plant health risk register identified as posing a possible threat to the country’s arable crops, trees, horticulture and wild plants.

This makes it vital to have some sort of co-ordinated approach across the various different sectors towards monitoring plant diseases – as well as helping all sectors of the industry to understand how to improve their own plant health capabilities.

The virtual centre has been set up with funding from the Scottish Government of £600,000 – not new money, but top sliced from other research budgets.

However, while some of the funds are aimed at getting on top of long-standing problems such as potato cyst nematode (PCN), a deal of the work is to be focused on stopping diseases getting into the country in the first place – rather than having to launch a fire-brigade action afterwards.

Half the budget is to be earmarked for commissioning research into areas identified as being of particular threat.

The centre’s main statutory role is to keep the Scottish Government informed on the range of threats which are out there – but it will also assess the risks and which might arise as well as providing access to a network of specialist advice and practical skills.

In practical terms, this goes as far as pulling together a list of contractors capable of swiftly felling trees should a cordon sanitaire suddenly be required to stop disease spread.

But a 'joined-up' approach connecting all the sectors having an interest in plant health plays a key role. While the centre is split into specialist areas covering forestry, agriculture, environment and horticulture, the focus is to be on bringing together and sharing information and approaches from across these sectors – and perhaps the 'virtual' nature of the project, without its own Ivory Tower, will help the information flow and foster a cross-fertilisation of ideas and approaches.

So it’s nice to know that there’s now a body out there which is watching over the industry and helping guard our crops against the threats of new pests and diseases.

Let’s just hope the only outbreak we see in the short term is one of drillers finally getting into the fields and getting a chance to press on with the spring sowing!