This is available to all registered cattle holdings in England, including herds already registered with BVDFree. The funding covers 2 vet visits on-farm, plus £61.30 for BVD testing and upload of results to BVDFree. Farmers can access this funding through their vet practice.
Once farmers register with the BVDFree England scheme, the herd will achieve BVD herd status after completion of 2 years of negative. The Stamp it out initiative covers the cost of testing for one year. Herds’ high health status is then promoted via bvdfree.org.uk.
The more herds testing and eliminating BVD in your local area, the easier it will be to keep the disease out of your herd. With these results being uploaded to the national database by the labs, there will be an increasing pool of animals with a known BVD status to trade.