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The ICSA has called for all imported livestock to be BVD tested in advance of being imported to Ireland.
ICSA animal health and welfare chair Hugh Farrell has said that Ireland needs to close off the weaknesses in the BVD eradication programme as soon as possible so that the need for compulsory testing of millions of calves is removed.
“[The] ICSA wants to see the job of testing all pre-2013 livestock finalised as quickly as possible and, most importantly, we want all imported livestock to be BVD tested in advance.
Weakest link
“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and it makes no sense to allow farmers to import stock, most of which are breeding stock, with unknown BVD status.
“The current arrangement where farmers are strongly advised to test imports is not enough, because it is too late when the stock are already in place.
“It is clear that this could undo a lot of the hard miles that farmers have undertaken under the BVD programme.
“It makes no sense that we have no end date in sight for compulsory testing of all calves in herds that have not had any BVD positives for years, while we allow importation of stock where we do not know what their status is,” he said.
PI calves compensation
Farrell also called for a proper compensation payment for persistently infected (PI) calves.
“I have always said that we cannot resolve BVD if we do not help farmers who are unfortunate enough to have the disease. Eradication of disease needs solidarity at national level. This lesson has never been more clear than now.
“Ireland needs to be BVD-free, but the key final elements are full compensation to ensure full clear-out of PI calves and full testing of imports, along with finalising the pre-2013 animals,” he said.
Testing of pre-2013-born cattle
Farmers will be required to test older cows and bulls for BVD under new legislation recently signed by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed.
Animal Health Ireland estimates there are approximately 3,000 such cattle in about 1,600 herds. The majority are breeding bulls, with the remainder cows.
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