Animal Health and Welfare Pathway

Many of our farmers are into their second year of using the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway to help fund vet time out on farm!

As with all new government initiatives, things change, so we wanted to publish an up to date guide for anyone applying, or who currently has an ‘agreement number’ in place for 2024/5.

  • Once you have your agreement number, please ensure you have called us to set up a pathway account. We will ask for the agreement number, SBI number and start date of the application.
    • If you were not asked this, or believe the date given was wrong, please get in contact with us ASAP to update this
  • The pathway provides funding for veterinary investigations to take place on your farm. The government have set out minimum testing into endemic diseases, the mandatory testing you must adhere to, to claim, are:

Dairy: BVD – Bulk milk test

Beef: BVD – Young stock screen of 5x bloods taken from 9-18month old unvaccinated cattle.

Sheep: Worm burden +/- treatment efficacy – Faecal samples from 10-15x individual lambs aged less than 12 months.

  • If treatment is required, a second faecal sample from the same lambs 7 or 14 days post-treatment. If you have less than 10 lambs you can still apply, just need to test all lambs.

Pigs: PRRS – Oral fluid samples from at least 30 pigs. Collected on 5x uncoated cotton ropes which the pigs chew upon.

The grant covers additional vet time, where you can discuss any animal health and welfare related topic, as well as topics like biosecurity, medicine usage and Red Tractor health planning.

  • The initial grant does not cover any further lab fees, but samples can be taken during free vet time.

Once these investigations are complete, your allocated vet must complete a review highlighting the testing, findings and an action plan. You will then receive the completed review report and a signed declaration, with the information required for your claim. At this point, you need to apply for the funding through:

https://apply-for-an-annual-health-and-welfare-review.defra.gov.uk/claim/endemics

Please do not wait for our invoice before claiming the funding as this may be too late.

Follow-up endemics

Following on from a completed initial pathway, there is additional funding called ‘endemics’, which allow for further investigations. This follow-up must be in the same species you complete your review with.

Dairy currently has no follow up endemics, however:

Beef: BVD negative – BVD biosecurity plan // BVD positive – BVD PI hunt of all cattle stock on farm and a BVD biosecurity plan.

Sheep: Testing under one of six focus topics and a biosecurity discussion – very flexible + essentially allows us to test for any area you are concerned about, or needs following up after our health plan! Including mineral blood testing, disease surveillance (e.g. abortion + iceberg diseases), lameness control, vaccination programs etc

Pigs: PRRS – blood sample 30x animals for PRRS testing to gather your PRRS status and perform a biosecurity plan.

You must complete the ‘endemic follow up’ within 10months of the initial pathway review date. You do not need a new agreement number if your number begins with ‘IAHW’. We recommend you wait until your initial pathway claim has been approved before starting a follow-up.

As with the initial pathway, once all investigations are complete, your allocated vet will provide you with the required paperwork to claim. This will include a signed declaration, and the information required for your claim. At this point, you need to apply for the funding through:

https://apply-for-an-annual-health-and-welfare-review.defra.gov.uk/claim/endemics

Please do not wait for our invoice before claiming the funding as this may be too late.

Timings

*During the time that grants are open for Animal Health and Welfare Pathway (until 19th June 2027), you can carry out a total of 3 pathways and 3 endemic disease follow-ups*

Initial Pathway:  Complete within 6 months. You can sign up for initial pathways 10months after the final review date of the previous pathway.

Endemic follow-up: Complete within 10 months of the initial pathway review. Repeat follow-ups must be at least 10months from the previous follow-up.