Veterinary Capacity

This project was funded by the Welsh Assembly Government through the Wales Rural Observatory at Cardiff University. The project runs from 2008-9 and examines the veterinary capacity and impact of the Assembly's TB Health Check.

The TB Health Check is part of the Assembly's commitment to eradicating TB. From October 2008 to December 2009 the intention is to test all cattle holdings for TB. Many of these are already tested, particularly in West Wales and Monmouth. The situation is different in north Wales where cattle herds tend to be tested only once every four years. You can see the Parish Testing Intervals for England and Wales here. This map shows the presumed location of the additional herds and cattle that would need to be tested as part of the Health Check.

The Health Check will result in approximately 3500 additional herds being tested, mostly in north Wales. Before the Health Check began, this project examined whether there would be sufficient veterinary capacity to deliver the Health Check, and attitudes towards the Health Check amongst veterinary staff. Potentially, there may not have been enough vets or time to complete the testing or vets may not have wanted to do it. Some areas of Wales may also suffer from a shortage of vets following closures of practices. This map shows the location of large animal practices in Wales and the presumed locations of the additional TB tests generated by the Health Check.

The research was completed using by analysing existing testing data from Animal Health, interviewing vets in private practice and Animal Health, and a survey of all large animal practices in Wales. Future work should be looking at the impact of the Health Check on veterinary practices.

The full results of the research so far should be published later this year.