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Tackling animal disease in Wales
Welsh Government announces its priorities

The Welsh Government's Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS) steering group has announced its animal disease priorities for 2012/2013.

The priorities are: bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), Johne's disease and liver fluke in cattle; Johne's disease, lameness, mastitis, BVD and liver fluke in dairy and; sheep scab, liver fluke, lameness and lambing losses in sheep.

Owing to its magnitude, Bovine tuberculosis is being treated as a separate issue.

The list of priorities will be used to develop and implement proposals for tackling each issue in Wales.

The steering group, which is made up of 17 industry members, has said it also hopes to promote the importance of good farm biosecurity, in order to cost-cut, and will imbed this in all of its animal health and welfare work.

Peredur Hughes, group chairman, said: "We have a challenging time ahead as we continue our work on these very important priorities."

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Equine Disease Surveillance report released for Q4 2025

News Story 1
 The latest Equine Disease Surveillance report has been released, with details on equine disease from Q4 of 2025.

The report, produced by Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance, includes advice on rule changes for equine influenza vaccination.

Statistics and maps detail recent outbreaks of equine herpes virus, equine influenza, equine strangles and equine grass sickness. A series of laboratory reports provides data on virology, bacteriology, parasitology and toxicosis.

This issue also features a case study of orthoflavivus-associated neurological disease in a horse in the UK. 

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News Shorts
NSA webinar explores sheep tailing and castration

The National Sheep Association (NSA) is to host a free webinar on the castration and tail docking of lambs.

The webinar, 'Understanding the tailing and castration consultation: A guide for sheep farmers', will be hosted online on Monday, 2 March 2026 at 7.30pm.

It comes during a government consultation into the methods used for these procedures. Farmers are encouraged to engage before the consultation period closes on Monday, 9 March 2026.

The webinar offers clear and actionable guidance to support farmers to contribute meaningfully to the consultation and prepare for potential changes.

On the panel will be former SVS president Kate Hovers, farmer and vet Ann Van Eetvelt and SRUC professor in Animal Health and Veterinary Sciences Cathy Dwyer. Each panel member will utilise their own specialism and expertise to evaluate risks and outcomes to sheep farming.

Find out more about the webinar on the NSA website.