Sheep vets gain easy access to disease data
“The sheep disease surveillance dashboard provides vets and farmers with a user-friendly means of accessing sheep disease data and enables them to tailor it to their own requirements and interests"
Veterinary surgeons and farmers will now have easier access to sheep disease data, as the APHA launches a new disease surveillance dashboard.
The dashboard, which can be accessed via the APHA Vet Gateway, includes an interactive map giving information on a county, country or Great Britain basis, as well as by time period and age group of sheep. Vets and farmers can search the most common diagnoses in their area and learn where specific diseases have been diagnosed.
Data has been acquired from diagnoses made by APHA’s veterinary investigation centres across England and Wales, from a network of university and surveillance partners working with the agency, and from Scotland’s Rural College Disease Surveillance Centres.
Richard Irvine, APHA’s veterinary head of scanning surveillance, said: “The sheep disease surveillance dashboard provides vets and farmers with a user-friendly means of accessing sheep disease data and enables them to tailor it to their own requirements and interests.
“It shows how the diagnostic information captured from scanning surveillance across Great Britain can be shared and contributes to building a national picture of sheep health.
“I would encourage both farmers and vets to try the dashboard as well as continuing to help APHA and our disease surveillance partners to protect the livestock industry by sharing information and intelligence about animal disease.”
APHA are now developing dashboards for other farmed animal species. The animal disease surveillance pages on the APHA Vet Gateway have also been refreshed and enhanced.
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
