expert science • excellent service
VLA Scientific Press Release
Herdsure® granted licences by CHeCS for endemic cattle diseases
30 June 2011
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), Johne’s 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 herd’s health status.
- Level 2 aims to improve the health status of the herd.
- Level 3 monitors the herd’s 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 Johne’s protocols under the CHeCS umbrella 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."