Watch: how to apply for vet visit funding

The Animal Health and Welfare Review is a funded annual vet visit available to eligible livestock keepers in England. 

It’s part of our Animal Health and Welfare Pathway which is designed to improve farm animal health and welfare while also supporting productivity, food security, disease control, public health and environmental outcomes.  

After the review, you can choose to undertake an Endemic Disease Follow-up, which is a second funded vet visit.

In this post, I'll share a recap and a series of videos to help you apply. 

The Animal Health and Welfare Review

The Animal Health and Welfare Review is intended to help you work with a vet to identify health and welfare issues and agree practical improvements. 

It is not an inspection or audit and you can choose your own vet. 

During the visit, your vet will: 

assess the health and welfare of the animals and farm conditions  review disease risks and on-farm biosecurity  carry out required testing for priority endemic diseases or conditions (depending on the livestock species)  discuss medicine use, including opportunities to improve antimicrobial stewardship  provide advice on improving animal health, welfare and productivity  produce a written summary with recommendations and agreed actions.

The disease testing varies by species: 

Pigs – testing for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).   Cattle – testing for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD).   Sheep – testing the effectiveness of worm treatments to identify anthelmintic resistance. Endemic disease follow-up

After the review, you can choose to undertake an Endemic Disease Follow-up, which is a second funded vet visit.

This focuses on putting disease control measures in place and developing a targeted disease management plan.  

The amount you receive depends on the species. I've included this below.

You can apply for funding for both the Animal Health and Welfare Review and the endemic disease follow-up for more than one species. 

How to apply videos

To get started, please read the GOV.UK guidance and then watch the overview video.

We've also created species-specific step-by-step video guides with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), to help you apply, linked below.

Pigs 

You must have 51 or more pigs to be eligible.

You can claim £648 for the Annual Health and Welfare Review.

Pig keepers: watch how to claim. 

You can claim £1,087 for the endemic disease follow-up.

Pig keepers: watch how to claim for an endemic disease follow-up visit. 

Cattle 

You must have: 11 or more beef cattle/11 or more dairy cattle to be eligible.

You can claim:

£647 for beef cattle for the Annual Health and Welfare Review £447 for dairy cattle for the Annual Health and Welfare Review

Cattle keepers: watch how to claim for a vet visit. 

You can claim:

£215 for cattle for the endemic disease follow-up (where no BVD is present)  £954 for a follow-up for beef cattle with a persistently infected (PI) hunt or £258 for a follow up without a PI hunt £1,844 for the endemic disease follow-up for dairy cattle with a persistently infected (PI) hunt or £258 for a follow up without a PI hunt

Cattle keepers: watch how to claim for an endemic disease follow-up visit. 

Sheep 

You must have 21 or more sheep to be eligible.

You can claim £574 for the Annual Health and Welfare Review.

Sheep farmers: watch how to claim for a vet visit. 

You can claim £658 for the endemic disease follow-up.

Sheep farmers: watch how to claim for an endemic disease follow-up visit. 

Poultry 

I recently blogged to share that we’ve introduced funded Poultry Biosecurity Reviews as part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.  

Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, remains a serious risk for poultry keepers across England. It spreads quickly and can have serious consequences if it reaches a flock. 

Poultry keepers can get funding for 3 biosecurity reviews at each of their sites.

To be eligible, you must: 

be responsible for the day-to-day care of the birds  have a Single Business Identifier (SBI)  have a registered County Parish Holding (CPH) in England 

You must meet at least one of the following minimum flock sizes per CPH: 

1,000 laying hens  1,000 meat chickens  1,000 breeder chickens (including pullets)  500 ducks  500 geese  500 turkeys 

You can apply for a review for each eligible site. 

You’ll receive £430 per review to help cover the cost of the visit. 

You can learn more and apply through GOV.UK.

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https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/06/watch-how-to-apply-for-vet-visit-funding/

seen at 14:38, 6 July in Farming.