Additional Guidance

Key Livestock Diseases

• Biosecurity checklist for key livestock diseases is a guide published by the Moredun Research Institute. They have also produced a poster that summarises the main points

Buying Bulls

• Buying in bulls is one of the commonest ways to bring disease on to farm. It is always advisable to obtain a Bull Health Declaration (showing the health of the bull and of its herd) prior to bringing it on to your farm. If unavailable then you should consult your vet and have the bull tested. National Animal Disease Information System (NADIS) provide further guidance on Bulls and Biosecurity.
• The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Dairy (AHDB) publish a variety of biosecurity guidance, including buying in cattle.

 

Livestock Associations & Societies

Beef

• National Beef Association

Dairy

• Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Dairy (AHDB)
• Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers
• Dairy UK

 

Professional Veterinary Association

• The British Cattle Veterinary Association provides guidance and useful resources on health and welfare of cattle and responsible use of antibiotics.

 

Record Keeping Guidance

• The Scottish Government provide guidance on Livestock ID and Traceability for cattle, on how we identify animals, and how they are tracked when they are moved
• All cattle births, deaths and movements must be reported to ScotMoves+, operated by ScotEID, completing a multispecies database which can track and trace all farmed animals within Scotland and across the border in real time

 

Health Schemes

• Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHeCS) is the regulatory body for Cattle Health Schemes in the UK and Ireland
• SRUC’s Premium Cattle Health Scheme, one of the largest CHeCS Licensed Schemes in the UK, membership provides testing and management to control BVD, Johne’s Disease, IBR, Leptospirosis and Neospora alongside the CHeCS Bovine TB Herd Accreditation programme

 

Assurance Schemes

• Quality Meat Scotland (QMS)
• Red Tractor Assurance

 

Antimicrobial Stewardship

• The Medicine Hub, industry-led and developed by AHDB, plans to address the lack of evidence of responsible use by collation of national-level data for dairy, beef and sheep farmers. Offering farm-to-fork support, it offers a safe, secure and independent central way to collate, report and compare antibiotic data from a variety of sources, including on-farm farm use and datasets from vets and processors. Their overview video provides information.
• Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance provides information about antibiotics & UK farming, including news, facts, statistics, science and reports, case studies and videos.
  • Responsible Use of Antimicrobials in Cattle Production
  • Responsible Use of Antimicrobials in Dry Cow Management
  • Responsible use of Vaccines and Vaccination in Dairy and Beef Cattle Production
  • Avoiding milk antibiotic residues
  • Progress by Sector
• BCVA provides guidance and resources on responsible use of antibiotics, including MilkSure, a training and veterinary certification programme (led by Dairy UK in conjunction with BCVA) for dairy farmers. Whilst centred on residue avoidance in milk, it covers other areas of good medicine stewardship, such as adhering to correct treatment protocols, medicine storage, and reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Further Information

• Food Standards Scotland (FSS) produce specific guidance on Cleaner cattle and sheep