New COVID-19 guidance for UK vets

The British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) has issued new guidance for farm vets, encouraging members to work from home where possible and not allow farmers to enter their premises or bring animals in for treatment.

The guidance states that practices should essentially operate as if out of hours, with vets only visiting the practice to collect medicines and sterilise equipment.

Where drugs are being dispensed, they should be left in a lockable container outside the practice for collection.

And if it is deemed necessary to bring an animal in for examination, then farmers should not be permitted to accompany the animal into the building.

Call-out

Where vets have received a call-out to a farm, the advice to veterinary practices is that they should assess if the visit is really necessary and whether a diagnosis could be done remotely or if other alternatives could be used.

But if the call-out is to be done, a risk assessment should be carried out, to include assessing the health and vulnerability of the client on arrival. The vet and farmer should then maintain a 2m distance.

TB testing

The same social distancing should be in place when TB testing is being done. If this is not possible (due for example to poor handling facilities), the test should be delayed until alternative arrangements can be made.

The BCVA has also clarified with government that farmers will receive an amnesty on financial penalties (because a test is overdue) if the test has to be postponed, rearranged or abandoned directly due to COVID-19.

At present, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Britain has said that it has “no plans to cancel any statutory requirements for TB testing”, but has recognised that prioritisation of certain TB tests might become necessary due to reduced vet capacity.

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