Guidance

Vets: testing cattle for endemic disease follow-up

Updated 21 January 2025

Applies to England

Testing, sampling and advice 

Test type and sampling 

You must do a biosecurity assessment regardless of the test result from the initial review. 

If the test result from the initial review was positive for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), you must do a persistently infected (PI) hunt on all beef or dairy cattle in the herd. 

If the test result from the initial review was negative for BVD but you suspect BVD is present in the herd, you should: 

• recommend a PI hunt 
• do a PI hunt on all beef or dairy cattle in the herd if the farmer agrees to your recommendation

 You can do the PI hunt by one or a combination of:

• blood sampling (for virus)
• tissue sampling (via button tag)

You should not use the result of tissue sampling or blood sampling that was done before the follow-up.

If you’re confident the farmer has the expertise to do the tissue sampling, and they agree, they can take the samples. The farmer should not do the test. It should be done by an accredited laboratory.

No matter which combination of testing the farmer has chosen, you should test all cattle in the herd (epidemiologically distinct unit).

Although tag and test is not funded directly through this service, a farmer can choose to invest themselves in this tool to maintain and monitor BVD disease status.

Biosecurity assessment

The BVD-focused assessment must cover:

• boundaries
• buying and selling habits (including quarantine approaches) as well as trojan cows and breeding bulls
• cleaning and disinfection procedures
• membership of accredited BVD programme
• other aspects of farm management (for example, heifer rearing, training of staff)
• vaccination regime

You can use free online tools to help you in your assessment. 

Read the biosecurity advice and cattle purchasing checklist for more information.

Test sample laboratory analysis

Send the test samples to a laboratory for analysis. A farmer will not be eligible for funding unless the laboratory meets at least one of these specifications:

• ISO/IEC 17025 accredited
• UKAS accredited (UK accredited) for BVD testing

Find a recommended laboratory to test for BVD in cattle.

Test results

You should discuss the test results and any further action or recommendations with the farmer.

What documentation you need to give the farmer

When you have completed the follow-up, the farmer will ask you to give them:

• a written report
• a vet summary

Written report

It should include:

• laboratory test results if required
• advice or suggested health and welfare actions
• other findings, for example biosecurity recommendations and medicine usage
• actions to address issues from the follow-up – this is likely to be 2 to 3 but can be more or less based on individual needs
• information about other concerns the farmer raised

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will not ask to see the report.

Vet summary

The summary gives the information the farmer needs to make a claim. The RPA may ask to see the summary as evidence the follow-up took place. It should be a separate document. 

We suggest you use our vet summary templates for cattle testing. If you choose to use your own summary template to give to the farmer, it must include:

• the species the farmer chose for the follow-up  
• the single business identifier (SBI)  
• the name of the business where the follow-up took place  
• the agreement number  
• the date of the vet’s last visit to the farm for the follow-up  
• confirmation the farmer had the minimum number of animals required on the date of the follow-up  
• the vet’s name  
• the vet’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) number  
• confirmation the vet did a biosecurity assessment  
• confirmation the vet gave the farmer a written report  
• the vet’s signature and date – the signature can be digital or on paper

If a PI hunt was done, the summary must also include:

• confirmation the vet did a PI hunt
• if the result from the initial review was negative – confirmation the vet recommended the PI hunt
• confirmation the PI hunt was done on all animals in the herd  
• the date samples were last taken for the follow-up  
• the laboratory unique reference number (URN) or certificate number for the test results

If a PI hunt was not done, the summary must also include:  

• confirmation the vet did not do a PI hunt