Herdsure granted licences by CHeCS for endemic cattle diseases
Herdsure cattle health improvement service has been granted further licences by the Cattle Health Certification Standards UK (CHeCS) a recognised certification of herd health. Buying cattle only from herds that are known to be healthy is becoming ever more important and herds in CHeCS are able to provide an owner’s declaration of health status. This gives buyers the confidence that they are not buying in disease.
Farmers enrolled in Herdsure now have the option to become CHeCS accredited as being free of disease for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), Johnes disease, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) and leptospirosis. 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.
- Level 3 monitors the herds improved, or established, health status.
Paul Townsend, Head of the Laboratory Services Department at AHVLA commented: Herdsure continues to rapidly develop as a leading cattle health improvement service in the UK and increasing numbers of farmers and veterinary surgeons are joining Herdsure as they recognise its unique combination of expert testing, user friendly features and sophisticated IT management support. Additional recognition by the respected CheCS standard is further endorsement of the quality of our service. We are also pleased to be collaborating with the CHeCS technical board on the development of a neosporosis programme.
Tim Brigstocke, Executive Director at CHeCS added: We are absolutely delighted that Herdsure has seen the benefit to both themselves and to their farmer clients of getting approval for their IBR, leptospirosis and Johnes protocols under the CHeCSumbrella to go along with the already approved BVD programme. It is incredibly important that everyone works to common standards based on the best available science to try and monitor, control and eventually eradicate these infectious diseases which can have such a profound and often unappreciated effect on herd margins.”
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 disease, 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, the commercial arm of the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA).
For further information:
Contact Herdsure on 01789 750972
Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHeCS)
Cattle Health Certification Standards (UK),abbreviated CHeCS(pronounced ‘Checks’) is a self-regulatory body for Cattle Health Schemesin the UK. It is a non-trading organisation established by the British cattle industry for the control and eradication of non-statutory diseasesby a set of standards to which all licensed Cattle Health Schemesmust 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 CHeCSwith 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
Animal Health and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA)
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and operates across Great Britain on behalf of Defra, Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and other public bodies. Our purpose is to help safeguard animal health and welfare and public health, protect the economy and enhance food security through research, surveillance and inspection.
We work on farm, at ports and elsewhere to reduce risks to animal health and welfare and public health, and provide a wide range of research on livestock diseases and surveillance of new and emerging disease threats. Our services include applied research, specialised testing, epidemiology and risk assessment to support policy-making. We also maintain an emergency response capability to manage outbreaks of serious animal disease and protect endangered wildlife species through registration and licensing activities.