UK Farmcare provides quality assurance and administration services to the four Farmcare companies holding the Veterinary Delivery Partnership (VDP) contracts in England. As part of this service, UK Farmcare provides a single point of contact for the VDP in England.
As part of the Policy decisions regarding Bluetongue Virus, livestock keepers wishing to move animals out of the Restricted Zone into the Free Zone must do so under licence. Part of this process includes blood sampling of the animals to return a negative bluetongue virus result, prior to movement.
Pre-movement sampling is provided free of charge to livestock keepers under the VDP contracts. Keepers must make a request to sample through UK Farmcare, who manage allocation of the work to the keepers’ preferred veterinary practice within the VDP network. Prior to sampling taking place, APHA must first approve the request to sample. Once approval is given by APHA, UK Farmcare confirm approval with the allocated veterinary practice. Lab capacity is limited therefore there is a maximum number of animals that can be sampled in any one day.
UK Farmcare wishes to make their position clear in terms of the role held within the above process:
- UK Farmcare does not approve sampling but passes approval on from APHA to the allocated veterinary practice.
- UK Farmcare has no control over lab capacity. Once capacity is reached on any given day, no further requests can be taken for that date.
UK Farmcare is processing an extremely high volume of calls and emails, which are being dealt with in order of receipt. Their team is dedicated to providing high standards of service and thanks you for your patience during this time.