EFB to be declassified?

In a follow-up to yesterday's story about the planned cut-backs in the UK bee inspectorate, an article in today's Financial Times [subscription] seems to suggest that European Foulbrood (EFB) may lose its notifiable status.

Currently, in the UK both EFB and American Foulbrood (AFB) are notifiable diseases -- meaning that anyone who suspects their bees may have either disease is under a legal obligation to report that fact to DEFRA (the government department for the environment and agriculture).

This does not bode well for British beekeeping. EFB is widespread in Southern England and difficult to control, although the bee inspectorate has done much to keep it in check. Without the inspectorate, EFB is likely to become much more widespread because it is such a difficult disease to identify in its early stages.