North-east vet centre extends free carcass collections
© Tim Scrivener More farms in Yorkshire and the East Midlands now benefit from free carcass collection for post-mortem examinations (PME) to the south of Thirsk’s Veterinary Investigation Centre (VIC).
A new contract signed between the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and Meraxian Limited this month extends “free-to-farmer” collection to farms more than an hour’s drive south of Thirsk.
See also: APHA offers free post-mortem collection service
Farms in East Yorkshire, north Lincolnshire and west of Bradford and Sheffield can have carcasses collected for free where disease is suspected and a veterinarian has recommended a PME.
Free collections have been extended to cover other areas of England, but the Thirsk office, until recently, only provided free collections for farms over an hour’s drive to the north of the centre.
Farms within an hour of Thirsk are still required to deliver carcasses “by their own means”, the APHA said.
Thirsk VIC will arrange free collections with a haulier, who will then liaise directly with the farmer to arrange collection and transport.
PME services
- The APHA has sites at Penrith, Shrewsbury, Bury St Edmonds, Starcross and Carmarthen, all with the same free one-hour collection rules.
- PME services are available at external partners (University of Bristol, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Surrey, the Scottish Agriculture College, covering Northumberland, and in Wales, the Wales Veterinary Science Centre, Aberystwyth).