There are still 175 farms in Scotland with 437 persistently infected (PI) animals on them. Alarmingly there are three holdings with more than 20 PIs.

The continued presence of PIs in the national herd is increasing the pressure on Government to move swiftly on the next phase of BVD eradication.

Nigel Miller, chair of Livestock Health Scotland, spoke to the Farmers Journal Scotland from a BVD event in Birmingham this week.

He said: “We are failing to control the risk posed by PIs to the national herd. Clearly PIs are the real driver of the disease. Without removing them we cannot be successful in eradication.

“Programmes in Ireland are having faster success than here, as they remove PIs from herds within five weeks. We must at least match this target if we are to end the disease.

“At the conference we heard from Isle of Man officials. They explained that they previously had 34 PIs on the island. But this plummeted to 10 when details of farms with PIs were published.”