GovWire

This service forms part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. It will provide payments to livestock keepers to fund farm visits by vets.

To get funding, you must have an Improve Animal Health and Welfare (IAHW) agreement in place for any reviews or follow-ups.

You can get funding for a vet, or a team chosen by a vet, to visit your farm if you keep:

• beef cattle
• dairy cattle
• pigs
• sheep

There are 2 parts to the service:

• animal health and welfare review
• endemic disease follow-up

You can choose the vet you want to do these. If the farmer is a vet, they must use another vet and should not do the visit themselves. The review and follow-up are not an inspection or audit.

What you could get

Youll get funding for whichever species you choose, not for each animal.

The funding amount for each species is different because some tests cost more to do.

The funding will contribute to:

• the cost of testing
• your time and the vets time

As part of your IAHW agreement, you can have up to:

• 3 reviews on the same herd or flock
• 3 follow-ups on the same herd or flock as the review

The service ends on 19 June 2027. All reviews and follow-ups must be done by this date.

Animal health and welfare review

During a review, the vet will:

• test for endemic disease (for cattle and pigs)
• test the effectiveness of medicines to treat worms (for sheep)
• advise you on how to improve animal health and welfare
• advise you on how to increase animal productivity
• discuss any other topics that are important to you

After the vet has completed a review, you can choose to have an endemic disease follow-up.

Endemic disease follow-up

You can only do a follow-up after you have done a review. You may also prefer to claim successfully for the review before you organise a follow-up. The follow-up must be on the same species as the review.

During a follow-up, the vet will:

• do more in-depth disease testing based on your review results (beef cattle and pigs)
• do disease testing or condition assessments based on farm health priorities (sheep)
• do a biosecurity assessment

The vet will also advise you on further steps to:

• control and prevent disease
• improve animal health and welfare
• improve animal productivity

Who can get funding

You must have a minimum number of animals each time the vet visits your farm. You must have one of the following:

• 11 or more beef cattle
• 11 or more dairy cattle
• 51 or more pigs
• 21 or more sheep

You can still apply for funding if you got a lump sum payment to leave or retire from farming.

You must:

• claim only for livestock registered in England
• be responsible for the welfare of your livestock when the vet does a review or follow-up
• claim only for businesses with a single business identifier (SBI) linked to a county parish holding (CPH) number

The CPH number must be registered in England. The CPH number cannot be:

• an 8,000 number used for abattoirs, pet food manufacturers, racing pigeon establishments and showgrounds
• a 9,000 number used for poultry keepers

Timing of reviews and follow-ups

You can do up to 3 reviews and 3 follow-ups as part of your IAHW agreement.

You must follow the correct timing at each step to be eligible to claim. We recommend you follow this sequence:

1. Do a review

If you do a review, you must:

• have an IAHW agreement in place before carrying out a review
• ensure there are at least 10 months between your reviews (the date the vet last visited your farm)

2. Claim for a review

3. Do a follow-up

If you do a follow-up, you must:

• have an IAHW agreement in place before carrying out a follow-up
• do the follow-up no more than 10 months after the associated review
• ensure there are at least 10 months between follow-ups

4. Claim for a follow-up

You need to have successfully claimed for your review before you claim for the associated follow-up.

5. Repeat this sequence for your second and third reviews and follow-ups

What to do if you completed a review in the old animal and health welfare service

You must:

• have an IAHW agreement in place before carrying out a follow-up
• claim for any previous reviews carried out in the old animal health and welfare service to be eligible to set up an IAHW agreement
• carry out a follow-up within 10 months of the previous review visit
• carry out the follow up on the same species as the review
• wait until 10 months after your last review before doing a new review under this agreement. This applies even if your review claim was rejected

Start your application

Apply for funding to improve animal health and welfare.

Get help with your application

Contact the Rural Payments Agency if you:

• cannot apply online
• have a question about your application

You can scan and attach documents in an email and send them to us. Or you can post them to our address. You should:

• use Get funding to improve animal health and welfare as the email subject heading
• put your SBI and agreement number on everything you send to us

Funding to improve animal health and welfare: guidance for farmers and vets