The clinics will operate as part of a "Plantwise knowledge bank", which is set to begin in June and act as a bio-security early warning system.

BBC: Plant clinics scheme to boost food security

Other measures to reduce transmission include improved bio-security, particularly stopping badgers from getting into farm buildings where they can come into contact with cattle, or feed stores.

BBC: Q&A: The badger cull

"Giving over half a million pounds of taxpayers' money to Bernard Matthews will cause considerable anger unless the business is also held to account for its bio-security lapses, " he said.

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Now the concentrated effort against the disease is inside the extended blue restriction zone - some 500 square miles of the North East - where vets, slaughtermen and soldiers operate the most stringent bio-security regime around a sweeping slaughter and culling campaign.

BBC: Disease 'stranglehold' on farmers

"DHS has a mandate from the President to find cost-effective means to meet our nation's bio-and-agro security needs, " he said.

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Co-written with synthetic biology expert Andrew Hessel and global security expert Marc Goodman, the story examines the dawning of the era of personalized bio-weapons and the incredible threat these pose to national security.

FORBES: Hacking the President's DNA: When Synthetic Biology Meets National Security

But Dr Anders Sandberg, James Martin Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, said that while "the future looks pretty bright" there are "dark shadows" because technologies to improve the world also bring fears such as security worries over advances in sharing technology and bio-weapons coming out of bio-technology meant to feed us and bring us new sources of energy.

BBC: How bright is the world's future?