Animal Health Officer - England
| Posting date: | 29 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £29,715 to £30,705 per year, pro rata |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 10 February 2026 |
| Location: | Launceston, Cornwall |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 441445 |
Summary
As a field-based Animal Health Officer (AHO) your duties will include, but not limited to the following:
Blood sampling of livestock species including cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry (after suitable training) .
Collecting blood samples from bTB breakdown cattle herds, including suckler, beef and dairy herds.
Conduct documentation inspections on animal identification, animal movement, breeding, medicine and other written or electronic records for audit and disease control and surveillance purposes.
Collect samples for National Surveillance Schemes including feed samples from farms, feed mills and feed merchants.
Collection of samples on behalf of VMD.
Collect samples and information for disease surveys including brucella and salmonella.
Manage compliance inspections for premises handling animal by-products e.g., rendering plants, composting sites, hunt kennels and knackers' yards.
Risk based visits to premises for egg marketing inspections including egg producers, egg packing stations, wholesalers, hatcheries and processing/boiling plants.
Responsible for enforcement of regulations including Eggs and Chicks (England) 2009.
Ensuring the standards are being met, in particularly the quality and weight and grading of eggs and that the labelling of containers and packaging are being complied with.
Carrying out complex record reconciliation, audit trails at packing centres and production units to check claims made on egg packs/labelling as well as egg production/sales levels.
Play an active part in contingency planning so the agency is able to respond to outbreaks of exotic notifiable disease and other emergencies.
Undertake allocated rostered out of hours on-call duties to deal with incidents and to support disease outbreak reports.
During outbreaks of notifiable disease, participate as directed to contribute to the control and the eradication of the disease including taking part in rosters for detached duty to other parts of Great Britain.
Working with a diverse team, both locally and across Great Britain, including other technical colleagues, veterinary surgeons and scientists during notifiable disease outbreaks.
Blood sampling of livestock species including cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry (after suitable training) .
Collecting blood samples from bTB breakdown cattle herds, including suckler, beef and dairy herds.
Conduct documentation inspections on animal identification, animal movement, breeding, medicine and other written or electronic records for audit and disease control and surveillance purposes.
Collect samples for National Surveillance Schemes including feed samples from farms, feed mills and feed merchants.
Collection of samples on behalf of VMD.
Collect samples and information for disease surveys including brucella and salmonella.
Manage compliance inspections for premises handling animal by-products e.g., rendering plants, composting sites, hunt kennels and knackers' yards.
Risk based visits to premises for egg marketing inspections including egg producers, egg packing stations, wholesalers, hatcheries and processing/boiling plants.
Responsible for enforcement of regulations including Eggs and Chicks (England) 2009.
Ensuring the standards are being met, in particularly the quality and weight and grading of eggs and that the labelling of containers and packaging are being complied with.
Carrying out complex record reconciliation, audit trails at packing centres and production units to check claims made on egg packs/labelling as well as egg production/sales levels.
Play an active part in contingency planning so the agency is able to respond to outbreaks of exotic notifiable disease and other emergencies.
Undertake allocated rostered out of hours on-call duties to deal with incidents and to support disease outbreak reports.
During outbreaks of notifiable disease, participate as directed to contribute to the control and the eradication of the disease including taking part in rosters for detached duty to other parts of Great Britain.
Working with a diverse team, both locally and across Great Britain, including other technical colleagues, veterinary surgeons and scientists during notifiable disease outbreaks.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.