Articles about 'Department for Environment food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

Cambridge helped to shape the conversation at London Climate Action Week 2026

A new strategy published today sets out a clear, practical plan to achieve Officially Bovine TB-Free status in England by 2038, backed by an ambition to deploy a cattle vaccine by 2030.

The coast is an intrinsic part of British identity – and perhaps nowhere is it more at risk than in the East of England. Cambridge researchers are working with communities and organisations across the region to manage the coast for the future, by working with nature rather than against it.

From crop science to robotics, supply chains to economics, Cambridge University researchers are working with farmers and industry to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and profitability. 

Field trials for a vaccine to protect cattle against bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) would need to involve 500 herds – potentially as many as 75,000-100,000 cattle – to demonstrate cost effectiveness for farmers, concludes a study published today in the journal eLife.

New diagnostic tests are needed to make vaccination against bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) viable and the number of false positives from these tests must be below 15 out of every 10,000 cattle tested, according to research published today in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Ash dieback, caused by the Chalara fungus, prompts re-evaluation of current protocols to protect UK trees and other plants; taskforce recommends threats to plant health be taken as seriously as animal disease