Voice and text broadcaster Relay Station has revealed that Animal Health, the governments executive agency responsible for ensuring the health and welfare of farmed animals in Great Britain, has selected its broadcasting technology to launch a managed multi-form, early-warning subscription service for farmers, livestock keepers, vets, and all others concerned about animal disease.
For the first time, subscribers can receive Animal Health alerts in the form most convenient for them … voice or SMS messaging to their mobile or landline, email, or by fax, at no cost, within minutes of new outbreaks.
Relay Station has been working closely with Animal Health since 2005, initially providing emergency broadcasting of voice, SMS, fax and email message alerts each time a notifiable animal disease alert occurred across the UK. The service enabled Animal Health to communicate with the large number of stakeholders involved in responding to outbreaks of animal diseases such as bluetongue, avian influenza and foot and mouth disease.
Emergency services, vets and public officials welcomed Animal Healths initiative, enabling them to quickly deploy the most effective response and to seal-off infected premises. Importantly for Animal Health, it freed-up critical staff and resources and provided an extensive audit trail whilst providing a more effective way of reaching stakeholders in the shortest timeframe.
Building upon its successful relationship with Relay Station, Animal Health has now decided to introduce a new subscription service aimed at further improving the reach and coverage of the early-warning programme. Central to the service is a data management tool developed by Relay Station which enables Animal Health to send specific alert messages to specific groups in specific areas. The tool can be accessed from any location at anytime.
Subscription to the service is free and all that farmers or vets need do to activate the service and receive alerts by phone, email or fax is to complete a simple form on the Animal Health website, or call the Agencys interactive telephone system on 0844 884 9888.
Animal Health is focussed on providing the best early warning alert system possible, and Relay Stations technology and frontline support singularly allows us to achieve this, says Animal Health Contingency Communications Manager, David Shearn. We expect thousands of farmers and vets to take advantage of this new flexible service so that all can become proactive in limiting the cost of animal disease.