Tackling animal disease in Wales
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."
Two independent vets have launched a podcast to help owners strengthen their bond with pets. Dr Maggie Roberts and Dr Vanessa Howie, who have worked in both veterinary practice and major charities, are keen to use their experience to enable people to give pets a better life.
