The CHeCS Board wishes to express its sadness regarding the announcement of the immediate closure of Biobest and their HiHealth Herdcare cattle health scheme. CHeCS understands that Biobest, operator of the HiHealth Herdcare cattle health scheme, has faced major disruptions over the past year due to essential upgrades to its rabies testing lab, resulting in lost customers and income. Increased regulations and costs have further impacted operations. Since all Biobest laboratory testing depends on the viability of rabies testing, they are no longer able to continue the HiHealth Herdcare health scheme.

CHeCS is aware that measures have been taken to complete testing for samples already at the laboratory, and that customers whose samples cannot be tested will be contacted directly.

All HiHealth Herdcare clients should have received a notification about the closure, as well as an offer of support to transfer to another provider with minimal disruption. For a full list of all CHeCS licensed health schemes, please visit the CHeCS website – find a scheme, where you can indicate your location and which diseases you wish to address.  The Premium Cattle Health Scheme, managed by SRUC Veterinary Services, is one alternative offering similar services for farmers in Great Britain.

The CHeCS Board recognise that this must have been a challenging decision and wish to express our appreciation to the Biobest staff, some of whom have worked closely with CHeCS and contributed significantly over the years to both the Technical Advisory Group and the ongoing development of the CHeCS Technical Document. We extend our best wishes to everyone affected.