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The percentage of tissue tags found to be empty when opened for BVD testing in laboratories is similar across all three brands of cattle tag now on sale in Ireland. This finding was presented by the Department of Agriculture to the most recent meeting of the BVD Implementation Group chaired by Animal Health Ireland.
The empty rate has attracted some attention in 2017 because it is close to double that of last year. The rate is still very low at just 1.01% of all tissue tags applied in calves. That equates to 22,761 tags to date this year. The total for 2016 was 13,899.
The overall low empty rate, plus the requirement on a farmer to do a retest, means that empty tissue tags do not threaten the effectiveness of the BVD programme.
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