A joint statement has been issued by AHVLA, BVA and BCVA following a recent meeting between the three organisations:

On 1 May, AHVLA met officers of BVA and BCVA to exchange views on matters of mutual interest, in particular exploring opportunities for working in partnership to serve the interests of livestock keepers and wider society.

The Surveillance Advisory Group report was published promptly and AHVLA looks forward to consulting with BVA and BCVA members in designing a new model which will have both national and regional elements.  BVA offered to assist in collating feedback from the profession through its regional and specialist structure. AHVLA agreed to provide further information on the scope of the project, constraints and governance so that BVA could make an informed decision on how to participate.

The recent procurement exercises for Veterinary Reserve Personnel were discussed.  We agreed that it can be difficult for small businesses to participate in any public procurement and that AHVLA should find ways to improve the ability of veterinary practices to participate in the provision of government work if they wish to do so.

Future policy requirements for procurement of TB testing are still unclear but it was agreed that in any competitive environment there would be a need for robust, consistent quality assurance.  AHVLA therefore undertook to run a workshop on this subject before the end of June to which veterinary organisations and others with an interest have been invited. AHVLA agreed to look for incentives for voluntary adoption of such a scheme. This should include recognition of practices and individual vets with expertise in TB control so capable of delivering added value services.

We agreed that we have shared interest in postgraduate development of vets working in food animal production.  We agreed that there were no fundamental obstacles to developing a pilot scheme for vets in practice to be seconded into AHVLA on a part time basis in order to learn skills such as population medicine and regulatory intervention.

Fee scales for tuberculin testing of non-bovine species were raised and BVA asked for more data in order to understand the value of the work being carried out.

A further meeting will be held in approximately three months.