Animal Health and Welfare Pathway

The Pathway will push ahead and help the gradual and continuous enchancment in farm animal well being and welfare. The Pathway is a partnership, the federal government will work collectively on every step with farmers, vets, the broader trade and the provision chain.

The Pathway is a crucial a part of the farming reforms set out within the Agricultural Transition Plan, delivering advantages for animal well being and welfare, farm productiveness, meals safety, public well being, UK commerce and the atmosphere.

The farming for the long run paper supplied a top level view of the Pathway in February 2020. This paper consists of this define and an replace to the Pathway in February 2022.

What is the Pathway?

The Pathway entails 3 mutually reinforcing strands.

1. Financially rewarding farmers who ship public items

As Direct Payments decline, we’ll reinvest a number of the money to help the manufacturing of more healthy, increased welfare animals. We will present incentives for farmers to go above the regulatory baseline and reward increased animal well being and welfare on the farm. We will deal with enhancements that are valued by the general public however not sufficiently delivered by the market.

2. Stimulating market demand for increased welfare merchandise

The majority of customers worth excessive animal welfare, however this isn’t absolutely mirrored in what they buy. We need to make it simpler for customers to buy meals that aligns with their values, by enhancing transparency and offering the trade with a stage enjoying subject to advertise such merchandise.

We are taking a look at potential market interventions akin to, labelling and obligatory public disclosure that would enhance the accessibility, availability and affordability of upper welfare merchandise for customers, whereas driving constructive procurement decisions by retailers.

This can be certain that the worth farmers obtain for increased welfare merchandise displays the worth the market attaches to them and that gross sales replicate true market demand. Unlocking this present demand signifies that public money will be extra successfully directed to animal welfare interventions which aren’t but valued by the market.

3. Strengthening the regulatory baseline

We plan to strengthen supply of the regulatory baseline by enhancing compliance with our present excessive requirements. Where it’s applicable to lift the bar we’ll do that in session with all related sectors and supply ample discover of modifications in order that farmers can plan correctly.

We will present capital grants, partnering with farmers, to transition to a brand new commonplace in instances the place this delivers good worth for money. We need to guarantee our future requirements are outcomes-focused wherever potential and are topic to much less burdensome checks as a part of a trust-based relationship between farmers and authorities.

What we need to obtain

The Pathway is central to the federal government’s manifesto dedication to guard and improve farm animal well being and welfare, and to take care of and build on our present world-leading requirements. It helps a number of authorities methods by:

Health and welfare priorities

The main objective of the Pathway is to enhance farm animal well being and welfare throughout our nationwide herds and flocks. To ship gradual, but continuous enchancment, the Pathway will deal with offering a transparent set of priorities that replicate a number of the absolute best alternatives for enhancing animal well being and welfare.

These priorities will information growth of the Pathway, shaping the recommendation given, info collected and capital grants supplied. We will evaluation priorities as we progress alongside the Pathway, working collaboratively with trade to adapt and be taught as we go.

Meat chickens

For meat chickens, our priorities are to:

• implement the Better Chicken Commitment which requires slower-growing breeds, decrease stocking densities and restrictions on thinning birds – these all contribute to improved well being and welfare outcomes akin to fewer leg issues
• undertake welfare-improving know-how to help environmental and behavioural monitoring and higher stockmanship

Laying hens

For laying hens, our priorities are to:

• transition out of cages: we’re exploring potential reforms round using enriched cages for laying hens, which might prohibit hens’ regular behaviours akin to dustbathing – the Pathway will help producers shifting away from their use
• enhance feather cowl administration: we need to help farmers to deal with the underlying root causes of feather pecking, decreasing the necessity for infra-red beak trimming
• enhance keel bone well being to cut back laying hens’ susceptibly to painful fractures which might happen in all manufacturing techniques

Pigs

For pigs, our priorities are to:

• enhance biosecurity to manage endemic pig illnesses and assist forestall the introduction of unique illness threats
• sort out Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus which prices the trade an estimated £52 million per 12 months and will increase antibiotic use
• scale back sow confinement throughout farrowing by supporting producers in shifting to much less confined alternate options for the sow, while making certain the welfare of her piglets and the protection of employees. We are additionally exploring potential reforms round using farrowing crates, which might prohibit sows’ regular behaviours akin to, nesting
• scale back stressors to maintain tails intact: we need to help farmers in addressing the underlying causes of excessive stress ranges in pigs which set off tail biting, akin to, poor environmental enrichment, in order that farmers really feel assured to not dock tails

Cattle (beef and dairy)

For beef and dairy cattle, our priorities are to:

• sort out Bovine Viral Diarrhoea which prices the trade between £14-36 million per 12 months and raises greenhouse gasoline emissions from cattle
• scale back lameness and mastitis to enhance well being and welfare, enhance productiveness and lower the environmental impacts of farming
• improve housing: many farm buildings usually are not optimally designed for cattle, particularly calves – we’ll encourage enhancements in air flow, cow consolation, loafing areas and enrichments akin to scratching brushes
• enhance ache administration throughout disbudding, dehorning and castration by means of better adoption of extended analgesia to enhance the welfare and efficiency of calves
• enhance the welfare of cattle at pastures by means of enhancements in shelter, drainage, gateways and tracks that help the conventional behaviours related to grazing and being outside

Sheep

For sheep, our priorities are to:

• present a tailor-made well being screening to deal with a variety of endemic illnesses, estimated to cost the sector round £85 million per 12 months – initially this can deal with inner and exterior parasites (and related anthelmintic efficacy), mastitis, ‘iceberg’ illnesses and people inducing abortion
• scale back lameness because it is likely one of the commonest indicators of unwell well being and discomfort amongst sheep, affecting animals’ mobility, productiveness and longevity
• enhance ewe sustainability, optimising physique situation in order that ewes are much less prone to illness, produce higher high quality milk and might rear a better variety of more healthy lambs
• enhance ache administration throughout castration and tail docking – we need to help the licensing and uptake of ache aid to scale back the impression of those procedures

Funding programmes

The Pathway’s first strand (financially rewarding farmers who ship public items) entails 4 funding programmes.

These all work collectively to ship our well being and welfare priorities, offering funding for high-quality veterinary recommendation, capital funding and ongoing prices.

1. Annual Health and Welfare Review (the Review deliberate for 2022)

The Review will:

• provide farmers funding for an annual go to from a vet of their selection to think about the well being and welfare of their animals. This consists of finishing up diagnostic testing, reviewing biosecurity and using medicines, and supply bespoke recommendation on actions and out there help to enhance the well being and welfare of their animals
• add worth to present practices and assurance scheme necessities and build upon the robust relationships that exist already between farmers and vets

The Review is initially for cattle, sheep and pig farmers who’re eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and who’ve greater than 10 cattle, 20 sheep or 50 pigs.

We intention to make the Review out there to farmers not at the moment taking part within the BPS as quickly as potential.

Our intent is that this can be a time restricted provide for 3 years. We will consider the effectiveness of the Review and seek the advice of on the necessity for additional regulation past this timeframe.

2. Animal well being and welfare capital grants (deliberate for late 2022)

Farmers can apply for grants to co-fund capital investments to help the supply of the revealed well being and welfare priorities. This will embody:

• smaller grants, the place farmers can choose from an inventory of apparatus and know-how objects
• bigger grants, for bespoke infrastructure initiatives akin to new housing, building upgrades and pasture enhancements

The aggressive grants will initially be open to livestock farmers with cattle, pigs, sheep, meat chickens and laying hens. In future years of the programme, we hope to develop to different livestock farmers akin to these with goats, geese, or turkeys.

3. Disease eradication and management programmes (from 2023)

Farmers will be capable to apply for monetary help to stop and scale back endemic illnesses and circumstances, building on the preliminary recommendation given within the Review.

The programmes will goal our preliminary precedence endemic illnesses:

• Bovine Viral Diarrhoea in cattle
• Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus in pigs
• tailor-made well being screening for sheep specializing in a variety of precedence endemic illnesses and circumstances

The programmes are prone to deal with cattle, pig and sheep farmers initially and might be focused at maximising the supply of public items, together with local weather change mitigation, slowing the rise of anti-microbial resistance and enhancing biosecurity.

4. Payment-by-results (trialling in 2023, probably transitioning to full-scale provide from 2025)

Payment-by-results is a brand new and revolutionary strategy which might reward farmers who display excessive animal well being and welfare outcomes by contributing to the continued prices related to increased welfare practices (‘enhancements’).

We are at the moment assessing which livestock farmers may very well be eligible and are contemplating these protecting dairy cattle, beef cattle, pigs, sheep, laying hens and meat chickens. This will depend upon the outcomes of exterior analysis.