Trading Standards officers play an important role in the health and welfare of farm animals and livestock, protecting and improving livestock and controlling and eradicating disease.
We achieve this by:
- Monitoring animal movements by licence
- Checking movement and associated records on farms
- Monitoring welfare standards of animals kept on farms, in transit or exposed for sale in livestock markets.
In the aftermath of the foot and mouth outbreak a rigorous regime of licensing which controls the movement of a range of farm animals has been introduced. The most common animals whose movements have to be licensed are sheep, pigs, cattle and goats.
Further information about livestock farming: www.gov.uk/browse/business/farming/livestock
Further information on how to protect your birds from avian flu: www.defra.gov.uk/publications/2012/01/20/pb12545-protect-birds-from-disease/
Farmers who keep sheep and goats need to keep a record of all movements. The following document is a shortened version of the DEFRA current holding register. Pages from this document can be photocopied as needed.
Holding register - shortened version [PDF 1.6MB]
A copy of the full version can be found on the DEFRA website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sheep-and-goat-holding-register
Business information sheets