The Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) National Eradication Programme is entering in to its thirteenth year of mandatory tissue tag testing in 2025. Some farmers who participated in the voluntary phase in 2012 have carried out an extra year of tissue tagging.

There has been an increasing spotlight cast on the programme in recent years due, in part, to the prolonged nature of tissue tagging and costs borne by farmers.

The programme has also come under the spotlight in discussions regarding other disease control programmes such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), with some farmers vocal in their reluctance to commit to other health initiatives until they can see a satisfactory conclusion to the BVD eradication scheme or a roadmap of how such will be achieved.

It is immaterial at this stage whether or not the initial aims to eradicate BVD were too ambitious or the disease has proved more challenging to eradicate than initially envisaged, the fact is that farmers and the industry now need a roadmap as to how we progress from here.

The recent scenarios where extensions to mandatory tissue tagging are announced at the eleventh hour, or not formally announced at all, is increasing frustration levels and serving farmers and the programme poorly.

Rumours over the last week of tissue tagging likely to extend to 2026 and possibly 2027 will create more frustration in the absence of such a roadmap.

BVD free status

An update on plans to apply to the European Commission for BVD-free status is also required.

In outlining aims for the programme for 2024 Animal Health Ireland stated that conditions for freedom under the Animal Health Law (AHL) include not having had a confirmed case in the previous 18 months and having BVD-free status for 99.8% for all herds representing at least 99.9% of cattle.

It said that application for free would be based on data at 31 December 2024.

The progress made in 2024 looks as though it provides the basis for applying for freedom, but it is not as simple as just applying for freedom.

The condition under the AHL of banning all vaccination puts a spanner in the works as even with a lower level of disease in herds the risk is still there for outbreaks to occur.

AHI also stated that the BVD Implementation Group, of which it heads up, is “currently considering options for post-eradication surveillance to ensure prompt case detection in what is likely to be a phased approach”.

Funding allocation

Tissue tagging is reported as being one of the best methods of surveillance testing but the big question is who pays for continued tissue tagging.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced an additional €10m in funding for BVD, IBR and the Targeted Advisory Service on Animal Health (TASAH) in budget 2025, but there has been no further mention of how this spend will be divvied up.

The Department of Agriculture allocated €3.75m to subsidise farmer costs of tissue tagging in 2024.

When announcing the measure it said; “the Department, recognising the benefit of a partnership approach, has increased expenditure on the BVD Programme to enhance the controls and will also provide additional support towards the cost of BVD tissue tag testing in 2024”.

A payment of €2.40 per will be made in respect of calves registered between 1 August 2023 and 31 July 2024 up to a maximum of €60 per herd.

Programme performance

The gains achieved in reducing the prevalence of BVD over the last decade are clear to see when you look at the programme results published by AHI. As detailed in Table 1, the number of BVD positive calves identified has reduced from over 16,000 head in 2013 to 443 calves for the year-to date in 2024. If performance for 2024 continues the number of BVD positive calves identified will be significantly reduced with 645 calves identified in the corresponding period in 2023.

?The number of herds with BVD is also running ?lower as detailed in Table 2. The number of herds with a BVD positive animal identified in 2024 is ?running at 186 herds compared to 237 herds for the same ?period in 2023.

There is always interest in the number of empty tags submitted and as ? shown in Table 3, this has fallen from 22,367 head in 2023 to 18,870 ?up to week 47 in 2024. The number of calves which have been tested in 2024, at 2,231,094 head, is ?60,000 head lower year-on-year reflecting a continued drop ?in the ?suckler herd and a fall ?in dairy birth registrations for the first time in over a decade.