Animal health and welfare

Disease outbreaks

Please visit the Trading Standards website for further information on Blue Tongue Disease, Foot and Mouth Disease and Avian Influenza. Please see the link in the 'useful websites' section.

Introduction
Do you know that Trading Standards have a statutory duty to enforce animal health and welfare controls?
We do this to ensure the health and welfare of farmed livestock and to protect human health, by ensuring high standards of safety, traceability and quality of meat entering the food chain.
We do this in the following ways:

Advice
Our team of Animal Health Inspectors provide advice and guidance to the agricultural community to help with compliance and ease the burden of newly generated legislation. A great deal of this legislation emanated from foot and mouth and BSE, but more recently European Union legislation has had a significant and continuing effect on those within the farming/agricultural industry.

On a day to day basis we provide advice by telephone on subjects such as:

• identification and tagging of animals
• movement licensing and records
• emerging farming issues. e.g. tuberculosis testing
• advice when legislation changes

Farm inspection
We have a programme of planned visits to farms. During these inspections, we check livestock records for:

• disease control and tracing
• farm movements
• transport
• breeding, births, deaths and cattle passports
• use of medicines
• retention and correct use of Animal Movement Licences
• details of animal by-products (carcasses)

We try and ensure the highest possible standards of disease control and animal welfare, by:

• inspecting livestock for signs of disease
• ensuring that any sick or injured animals are cared for promptly
• checking that livestock have access to adequate feed and water
• inspecting buildings to ensure that ventilation, lighting and space allowance meet required standards
• advising on Codes of Good Practice for the welfare of livestock
• bio-security

We check identification for traceability which is vital for notifiable disease control – BSE, bovine tuberculosis and foot and mouth etc. The main way of identifying animals is by ear tags, which have to be applied after certain time periods in the case of cows and sheep and before movement of other livestock. Identification is also vital for meat entering the food chain, so that its origin can be traced. There are also strict controls in place for replacing lost or illegible identification.

We advise on bio security, which is the cleanliness of the farm itself its, buildings, equipment including vehicles and any isolation facilities. By following the law and best practice, the possibility of the spread of any disease is reduced.

By attending all livestock markets around the county
In Shropshire we regularly attend livestock markets at Shrewsbury, Market Drayton, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Bishops Castle, Oswestry and Ash.

We attend to help ensure the highest possible standards of welfare for the animals while they are at the market. The Welfare of Animals at Markets Order 1990 says that any animal that is unfit for sale should not be brought to the market. We check that animals are not injured, are free from disease, and are not ill. If we find an animal that may be unfit or has been, or is being caused unnecessary suffering, we liaise with a Veterinary Inspector to assess the situation. The vet will make a decision on any action that is needed, with the welfare of the animal as the prime consideration. We assist throughout and investigate the circumstances of each case. The 'Markets Order' also requires that:

• animals are handled and controlled with care so as not to cause injury
• pens provide sufficient space
• young animals are provided with bedding
• animals have access to water and if any animals are kept at the market whilst awaiting transport, they are regularly fed

Bio security is vital at markets to reduce the risk of the spread disease. Anyone entering or leaving the animal area at the market has to ensure their clothes and footwear are clean. We check that vehicles transporting animals are cleaned and disinfected at the market or when they return to the farm.

We also check that animals were and are fit to be transported, have sufficient space, and the vehicle is partitioned so as not cause injury to the animals. If an animal has a minor welfare problem we can still impose restrictions on the journey away from the market, to ensure that the animal is not caused any further injury or unnecessary suffering.
There are regulations which control animal journey times. We check that documentation is correct, drivers are trained and know how to attend to animals and that the construction of vehicles is correct for any journey.

Other disease control measures we check at a market include movement restrictions (the six day movement standstill rule) and bovine tuberculosis pre-movement testing. Records and documentation are regularly checked upon entry to the market.

We also check movement documents and licences for pigs, sheep and goats. Licenses show animal identification, where the animal has come from and their destination.

Inspection during transportation – including road side checks
In conjunction with the Police we conduct roadside checks on any vehicles that are being used for the transportation of animals. This will also include trailers and horseboxes.

The vehicles are checked to ensure that they are safe and suitable for the animals being transported. The condition of the animals together with accompanying documentation is inspected, along with journey time details, in a similar manner as previously described.

We have added a link to the Transporter Authorisation Application Forms and Guidance Notes, which are available from the DEFRA website.

More information
There are links on this page to the Trading Standards website, where we have more information on animal health and welfare information, including:

• downloadable advice leaflets
• animal movement licensing
• on farm mixing of compound feed - who has to register?
• avian influenza - including the Poultry Register
• rabies
• emergency contacts - out of office hours