Lee Innes, from Moredun says: “Since the original membership partnership was created in 2011, Moredun and NSA have enjoyed a positive and productive relationship, increasing the impact of industry engagement through collaborative working across many areas of the sheep industry. The renewal of this latest partnership agreement will continue to build on the successful collaboration by working together to promote the highest standards of sheep health and welfare and enhance educational opportunities to help support the sheep industry. With many areas of common ground in sheep health and welfare, this is a partnership that yields many benefits to both organisations, their members and the wider sheep industry.”

Moredun was formed more than 100 years ago by an enlightened group of Scottish sheep farmers who were looking for answers to diseases that were devastating their flocks. These diseases included what are now known as the clostridial diseases, lamb dysentery, braxy, tetanus and black leg, as well as the tick borne disease, louping ill. The Moredun scientists soon had answers in the form of diagnostics, vaccines and disease control strategies for many of these problematic diseases. Moredun has stayed close to its roots, leading research programmes in sheep disease research to continuing issues such as sheep scab, liver fluke and gastro-intestinal nematodes. Moredun remains to this day led by farmers and is committed to creating knowledge exchange programmes to ensure this knowledge is disseminated to those that need it most, the livestock farmers.

NSA is an organisation that represents the views and interests of all UK sheep producers and strives for a sustainable and prosperous industry for the sector. Its vision is one of the people involved in keeping sheep being enthusiastic, knowledgeable and aspiring to best practice – and those not keeping sheep being increasingly aware of the contribution sheep make to society. As the industry evolves to provide even more public goods to tackle the effects of climate change, while continuing to farm with the highest of health and welfare standards to feed the population, and reacting to an ever-changing legislative landscape, NSA’s scope is broader than ever.

Phil Stocker, NSA Chief Executive, says: “The collaborative working between our two organisations ensures the sharing of consistent, current and independent information to benefit sheep health and welfare. This has been at the centre of this partnership since its inception.”

NSA members benefit from the quarterly Moredun disease factsheets involving sheep topics, along with the biannual Magazines, members’ updates and webinars and in return, Moredun scientists can access copies of the NSA weekly email newsletters. Moredun contributes a sheep health update to the NSA Sheep Farmer magazine, provides support to the NSA Next Generation programme and over the past two years has developed a joint webinar programme delivering information online on current issues in sheep health. In terms of farmer events, Moredun attends many of the main NSA sheep events, including the National NSA Sheep Event, NSA Scot Sheep, NSA Welsh Sheep and NSA North Sheep.

Mr Stocker continues: “Both NSA and Moredun are looking forward to continuing its work together, this will include future events such as a planned collaborative event at the Rhug Estate in Wales next May. We will continue to explore all opportunities that benefit both our organisations and the industry we serve and are committed to developing and improving this partnership.”