Heftier BVD sanctions on the table

The consultation on phase five of the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) eradication scheme has been launched by the Scottish Government. Within this is a series of proposals which would introduce heftier sanctions on herds that continue to have ‘not negative’ status.

The proposals

Testing – A new testing requirement forcing cattle keepers to investigate the cause of BVD exposure in not-negative herds.

Movement restrictions – Restricting positive herds from purchasing or otherwise bringing in animals. Also restricting the movement of any animals, after a change in status, from the holding that do not have an individual BVD status must be delayed until the result of the annual check test is uploaded to ScotEID.

Isolation – As soon as a PI is suspected, the animal would be isolated from the rest of the herd.

Tagging – Only primary/secondary tags would be allowed for sampling – meaning tissue tagging would be restricted to calves of up to 28 days. Older animals would have to be blood sampled individually.

Check test – Increasing the number of animals in the management group from five to 10 with the total number tested equivalent to 10% of the calves born in the herd in the last 12 months.

Reporting – Reducing the BVD test result reporting time from 40 to five working days.

Tracking – Track PIs back to their herd(s) of pregnancy risk period and birth, making the original herd not negative.

Name and shame – Publishing the location details and possibly the keeper’s name of herds where one or more virus positive animals are retained.

The reasoning

“The complaint I hear most often in relation to BVD, is that farmers want to see non-compliant herds penalised, because they are putting the majority at risk of infection or reinfection,” Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy Fergus Ewing said. “The consultation includes proposals which would make it increasingly difficult for farmers to continue to have BVD virus active in their herds, by actively inconveniencing them in terms of trading opportunities, further movement restrictions, and increased biosecurity controls.

The Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Consultation on Phase 5 of the Eradication Scheme is available via the Scottish Government’s consultation website. It will run for 12 weeks and will end on 6 November 2017.

“In May, it was reported that there were as many as 382 known PI animals at large on Scottish farms,” NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick said. “Worryingly, 140 holdings had two or more and even more shocking was the fact that one holding had 24 PIs at that time. That has the potential to undermine the efforts being made and must be tackled.

“We want our members to get involved and let us know if some or all of the proposals on herd testing, herd restrictions, tissue sampling, reporting and animal tracking will move us significantly closer to our ambition of disease-free status.”