Funding to improve animal health and welfare: guidance for farmers and vets
Cattle, pig and sheep farmers can get funding for vet services. This includes disease testing and advice to improve welfare and productivity.
This service used to be the annual health and welfare review. It has been expanded to include:
- changes to the review, which is now called the animal health and welfare review
- the second part of the service, which is the endemic disease follow-up
This service forms part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.
To get funding, you must have an Improve Animal Health and Welfare (IAHW) agreement. Before you start any actions from welfare reviews or follow-up visits, make sure the agreement is in place.
This service provides funding for farm visits to:
- reduce endemic diseases and conditions
- increase animal productivity
- improve animal welfare
A vet, or a team chosen by a vet, can do these visits. If you are a farmer who is a vet, you cannot carry out your own visit, you must use another vet.
There are 2 parts to the service:
- animal health and welfare review
- endemic disease follow-up
Farmers: apply for funding
Farmers should read this guidance to find out:
- what the service is
- how much you could get
- whether you’re eligible
Farmers and vets: arrange and do a review
Farmer and vets should read this guidance to find out what:
- farmers must ask vets to do on an animal health and welfare review
- disease and condition testing is required
- documentation farmers need to claim funding
Vets: how to do a review
Farmers should ask vets to read this guidance to find out:
- how to do the required sampling for testing
- laboratory requirements for testing
- what advice to give farmers as part of a review
Vets need to follow the guidance so that farmers are eligible to claim.
Farmers: claim funding for the review
Farmers should read this guidance to find out:
- when to claim for a review
- what information to provide when you claim funding
Farmers and vets: arrange and do a follow-up
Farmer and vets should read this guidance to find out what:
- farmers must ask vets to do on an endemic disease follow-up
- disease and condition testing is required
- documentation farmers need to claim funding
Vets: how to do a follow-up
Farmers should ask vets to read this guidance to find out:
- how to do the required sampling for testing
- laboratory requirements for testing
- what advice to give farmers as part of a follow-up
Vets need to follow the guidance so that farmers are eligible to claim.
Farmers: claim funding for the follow-up
Farmers should read this guidance to find out:
- when to claim for a follow-up
- what information to provide when you claim
Terms and conditions
Farmers who enter into an agreement to get funding to improve animal health and welfare must follow the agreement terms and conditions.
Other sources of funding
Updates to this page
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Warning about endemic disease follow-up not being available for dairy cattle removed.
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Added detail about which pathway the funding is part of. Also added more detail about which agreement should be in place.
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Clarified that a farmer who is also a vet must not do a health and welfare review on their own farm.
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First published.