Collection

Funding to improve animal health and welfare: guidance for farmers and vets

Cattle, pig and sheep farmers can get funding for vet services. This includes disease testing and advice to improve welfare and productivity.

This service forms part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.

To get funding, you must have an Improve Animal Health and Welfare (IAHW) agreement. Before you start any actions from reviews or follow-ups, make sure the agreement is in place.

Get started

Farmers should read this guidance to find out:

  • who can claim聽

  • how much you can claim

  • how you can apply

How to have an animal health and welfare review

Farmer and vets should read this guidance to find out:

  • when to have a review聽
  • what happens on a review聽
  • what documentation farmers need to claim funding

How to have an endemic disease follow-up

Farmer and vets should read this guidance to find out:

  • when to have a follow-up聽
  • what happens on a follow-up聽
  • what documentation farmers need to claim funding

How to work with your vet

Farmers should send this guidance to the vet so they can:

  • see how to sample and test聽
  • access the templates to fill in

Vets need to follow the guidance so that farmers are eligible to claim

How to claim

Farmers should read this guidance to find out:

  • when to claim for a follow-up聽
  • what information to provide when you claim

Other sources of funding

Updates to this page

Published 19 June 2024
Last updated 26 June 2025 show all updates
  1. Restructured collections page, rewritten content to better reflect the guidance available. Removed reference to the old Annual Health and Welfare Review.

  2. Warning about endemic disease follow-up not being available for dairy cattle removed.

  3. Added detail about which pathway the funding is part of. Also added more detail about which agreement should be in place.

  4. Clarified that a farmer who is also a vet must not do a health and welfare review on their own farm.

  5. First published.