The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has launched a sheep disease surveillance dashboard to make it easier for farmers and vets to view sheep disease data in Great Britain.

The sheep disease surveillance dashboard can be accessed online, via the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s Vet Gateway. It has an interactive map, which gives access to information on a county, country or Great Britain basis, and by time period and age group of sheep. Vets and farmers can find out the most common diagnoses in their area, or learn where specific diseases have been diagnosed.

The data behind the dashboard come from diagnoses made by APHA’s Veterinary Investigation Centres across England and Wales, from the network of universities and other surveillance partners working with APHA 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.”