To Livestock Producers,
If you are not part of a qualifying assurance scheme and have not yet received a vet visit and Vet Attestation Number (VAN), very shortly your business will be impacted if your livestock or any part of animal products derived from your livestock enters the food chain and may be exported to the EU.
Exports to the European Union (EU) will be stopped for livestock, livestock products and some 5th quarter products, from livestock farmers who do not provide a Vet Attestation Number (VAN) or show that they are part of a qualifying farm assurance scheme.
ACT NOW. If you do nothing and do not have a VAN, it may limit the value and demand for your livestock.
If you are not part of a qualifying assurance scheme and have not already received a vet visit and VAN, you should follow the steps below, or you may limit the value and demand for your livestock at a market or abattoir in the near future.
- Speak to your vet to either;
a) request a backdated vet attestation and VAN from a farm visit in the last 12 months, or
b) arrange a visit from your vet to provide you with a Vet Attestation and VAN. The visit does not have to have been specifically to provide a VAN – it can be provided during vet visits carried out for other purposes, as long as the criteria at question 10 in the Defra Q&A are covered which can be found at https://ahdb.org.uk/exports. - Familiarise yourself with changes that have been made to forms, systems and processes and include your VAN. This includes updated LIS-Movement forms (Sheep, Goats and Deer), and new functionalities within the LIS (Sheep, England), eAML2 (Pig, England & Wales) and ScotEID (cattle, sheep and pigs, Scotland) digital movement systems.
- Ask your livestock markets and/or abattoir where and how you can provide your VAN to them.
- Read the Vet Attestation information here – https://ahdb.org.uk/exports
- DO NOT DO NOTHING.
If you do not act on this, your animal products will, very shortly, not be able to be exported to the EU