Livestock — health and moving animals | PawSteps by Pets on the Green

Signs of ill health

Livestock hide illness. Spotting it early is what gives the vet something to work with — and it is part of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which requires you to protect an animal from pain, suffering and disease.

One sign on its own often means nothing. It is a change from what is normal for that animal that matters, which is why knowing your stock beats any checklist.

Who has to be told

Notifiable disease

A disease you are required by law to report if you even suspect it. Reporting is what lets the authorities isolate it before it spreads.

Examples: foot and mouth disease, avian influenza, bovine TB.

Zoonotic disease

A disease that can pass between animals and people. It is about who can catch it, not about who you have to tell.

Examples: salmonella, rabies, brucellosis, ringworm.

The difference in one line

Notifiable is about the law. Zoonotic is about who can catch it. Some diseases are both — avian influenza and brucellosis, for instance.

If you suspect a notifiable disease

Isolate the animal you are worried about
Phone the vet
Report it immediately — in England this is the Defra Rural Services Helpline. Failing to report is an offence
Stop outside visitors coming onto the holding
Health check every other animal around it
Keep records of what you saw and when

Phone numbers and reporting routes change. Check the current Defra guidance rather than trusting a number printed on a worksheet — including this one.

Common diseases worth knowing

Pneumonia — respiratory infection, common in young stock. Coughing, laboured breathing. Often triggered by poor ventilation.
Foot rot — bacterial infection of the hoof in cattle, sheep and goats. Lameness and a foul smell. Bacteria enter through cuts, so dry clean conditions prevent it.
Brucellosis — bacterial, causes reproductive problems, and is zoonotic.
Bovine viral diarrhoea — viral, causes infertility, failure to thrive and death.
Leptospirosis — bacterial, mainly cattle. Causes abortions and weak offspring. Also zoonotic.
Foot and mouth disease — viral, extremely contagious, notifiable. Blisters in and around the mouth and feet, so the animal struggles to eat or move.

Movement licence

Fill this in and it builds the licence underneath. Every field is here because someone tracing a disease outbreak would need it.

Where they are coming from

Farm name and address

Departure CPH

Where they are going

Destination address

Destination CPH

The animals

Species

Identification numbers

How many

Times

Date of movement

Time loading finished

Time of departure

Who is carrying them

Haulier name and address

Telephone

Vehicle registration

Two things the task is testing

Which time goes on the licence. The lorry arrived at 11:00, loading finished at 11:30, and it left at 12:00. The departure time is when the vehicle actually left, not when it turned up. Journey time is counted from the end of loading.

The sheep you know least about. Sheep 0003 was born on the farm, 0045 came from another farm, and nobody knows where 0068 was born. You still record the identification number you have. Saying "unknown origin" honestly is correct — inventing a birthplace on a legal document is not.

Transport checks

Before the animals are loaded

Trailer cleaned and disinfected from the last journey
Bedding down, so animals are not standing on bare slippery metal
Floor not slippery; ramp with battens for grip
Partitions in place if animals need separating
Ventilation open enough, without being a draught at speed
No sharp edges or broken fittings anywhere they can reach
Tyres, brakes, lights, coupling and floor all checked — the trailer is work equipment as well as an animal container
Height and headroom right for the species

After they are unloaded

Cleansed and disinfected as soon as possible — the law sets a limit measured in hours, not days
Everything the animals touched: floor, walls, partitions, ramp, gates, and the wheels and wheel arches
Taking animals to slaughter has its own separate cleansing requirements
Keep a record of when it was done

The legislation covering this is the Welfare of Animals (Transport) Order, alongside the disease control rules on cleansing and disinfection. Check the current version for exact time limits — they have changed before and will again.

Ramp angles

For sheep and adult cattle the ramp must be under 50%. For pigs, calves and horses it is steeper than 33.3% that causes the problem. Work out the gradient by dividing the height the ramp rises by the distance it covers along the ground, then multiplying by 100.

There is a calculator for this in the Work it out section — it shows the working so you can copy it into your answer.