Herdsure achieves CHeCS accreditation for its BVD service
Herdsure, the VLAs cattle health improvement service, is pleased to announce that its service for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) has been granted a licence by the Cattle Health Certification Standards UK (CHeCS). This means that herds enrolled in Herdsure can now become CHeCS accredited as being free of this disease.
Herdsure works in partnership with farmers and veterinary practices in providing a sampling, testing and management regime to establish and improve the health status of the herd at three different levels: Level 1 provides an indication of the herds health status, Level 2 aims to improve the health status of the herd and Level 3 monitors the herds improved, or established, health status.
Paul Townsend, Head of Laboratory Services at VLA comments: Herdsure has been a notable success since its launch in 2009 and it is continually expanding the range of disease protocols offered.
Its unique combination of expert testing, user friendly features and sophisticated IT management support is proving attractive to farmers and veterinary surgeons around the country. Recognition by the respected CheCS standard is another significant milestone for Herdsure and will assure customers and prospective customers of the quality of our service.
Tim Brigstocke, Executive Director at CHeCS adds: We are delighted that the VLA Herdsure scheme has now joined the CHeCS family. This is an important and significant development in CHeCS as the regulatory body for all the cattle health schemes operating in the British Isles.
It is essential that all the operating schemes work to common standards in order to ensure that British cattle famers can have complete faith in their results. This is what CHeCS is all about and we look forward to working with the VLA and Herdsure in the coming months to improve the health and welfare of the British cattle population.”
Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHeCS)
Cattle Health Certification Standards (UK), abbreviated CHeCS (pronounced ‘Checks’) is a self-regulatory body for Cattle Health Schemes in the UK. It is a non-trading organisation established by the British cattle industry for the control and eradication of non-statutory diseases by a set of standards to which all licensed Cattle Health Schemes must adhere.
These standards ensure that herd health status in one scheme is equivalent to that of all other schemes in the UK. Close collaboration by CHeCS with other countries ensures that the UK licensed Cattle Health Schemes are as good as any in the world. It is owned by the National Cattle Association (Dairy), the National Beef Association, the British Cattle Veterinary Association and Holstein UK.
For further information see www.checs.co.uk
Herdsure
Herdsure is a national Cattle Health Improvement Service launched to address the issue of providing cattle herd health planning to multiple herds, offering multiple disease control over a long time period. The Herdsure Management System (HMS) is an IT system used to record animal test results and provide prompts when testing is due thus offering a service with minimal recording on the part of the farmer and vet. Herdsure currently offers the option to test for six diseases: BVD (bovine viral diarrhoea), Johnes, liver fluke, leptospirosis, neosporosis and IBR (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis). The programme is suitable for all herds including beef, dairy, commercial and pedigree. Herdsure is part of VLA Scientific.
For further information see www.vlascientific.com or contact Herdsure on 01789 750972
VLA
VLA is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is a UK network of veterinary laboratories and is internationally recognised as a centre of scientific excellence.
It provides a wide range of applied research and consultancy on livestock diseases and surveillance of new and emerging diseases for the Government and animal health industry. Other services include animal health related research, specialised testing, epidemiology and risk assessment to support policy-making. It also maintains an emergency response capability to ensure protection from disease outbreaks. It is also a national and international reference laboratory for many farm animal diseases including avian influenza, bovine tuberculosis, classical swine fever and TSEs.
For further information see www.vla.gov.uk