Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an Executive Agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with the capability and commitment to deliver a wide range of animal and public health and welfare policies for the UK.
Their mission is to conceive and implement high impact investigative, translational and research science on viral diseases, delivering to the UK science agenda.
The purpose of the APHA is to protect our livestock, companion animals, wildlife and the public from viral pathogens that threaten animals and man. Also unique to this agency is the spectrum of their activity, ranging from field activity on-farm through to specialist laboratory and scientific services. Their responsibility also extends to wildlife and even to companion animals, where they may act as reservoirs of exotic or notifiable diseases, or of zoonotic diseases transmissible to man.
Research activities underpin the surveillance work and provide robust scientific evidence required by the UK Government and international organizations (EU, OIE, WHO, FAO) to inform policy and control strategies. The APHA's programme of work provides a seamless linkage between investigative diagnosis, surveillance and research with each area informing the other to directly influence and improve disease control and evidence for policy on animal diseases. Their delivery model is based on teams of highly skilled and competent scientists, alert to policy needs and able to provide a measured response, appropriate to the scale of the need.
APHA undertakes all research, surveillance and diagnosis activities to accredited standards, including ISO17025 for the majority of our diagnostic tests, including all tests for statutory and notifiable diseases and ISO9001:2015 for research. Studies are undertaken on a range of animal and zoonotic pathogens undertaken in BSL3 containment laboratories. The agency has been a major partner in the following EU networks-of-excellence: Med-Vet-Net, ANTIGONE, NeuroPrion, ArboZooNet ASKLEPIOS, PIVEC, COSI, ESNIP3, FLUPIG, FLUTEST, FLURESIST,FLUTRAIN, FLU-LAB-NET, Deltaflu, EPIZONE, COMPARE, RABYD-VAX, EVA and EVA(Global).