Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has confirmed that the farmer supports in respect of the disposal of PI calves under the BVD eradication programme will continue next year.
The Department will continue to provide, free of charge, a blood-based test to confirm the persistently infected status of those calves .
“These supports are playing an important role in ensuring the early disposal of PI calves, with up to 2,500 farmers benefitting under the 2015 arrangements,” said Coveney.
The Department of Agriculture will continue to place restriction notices on the relatively small number of herds retaining persistently infected (PI) animals. The Department will also be conducting risk-based testing of PI calves at knackeries from the new year.
The 2016 support arrangements will be as follows:
Beef herds
- A payment of €140 for each beef breed PI calf born in a suckler herd that is removed under the requirements of the scheme within five weeks of the first test.
- A reduced payment of €90 will apply in respect of such calves removed within seven weeks of the first test.
Dairy herds
- A payment of €120 for each dairy breed PI heifer calf born in a dairy herd that is removed under the requirements of the scheme within five weeks of the first test.
- A reduced payment of €70 will apply in respect of such calves removed within seven weeks of the first test.
The Department will continue to provide, free of charge, a blood-based test to confirm the PI status of those calves that give a positive test result on tag testing. The Department also provides a blood test for the dams of those calves and any progeny of PI cows.
However, the supports will only be available to those herd owners who are compliant with the 2016 testing requirements and where all 2016 born PI calves are removed within seven weeks of the first test.
“In addition, it is a requirement that all PI animals born in previous years are disposed of prior to 31 December 2015, unless born within the last seven weeks of 2015 where the normal seven-week disposal arrangements will apply,” said Minister Coveney.
To be eligible for both the BVD support arrangements and to participate in the Beef Data and Genomics Programme, it is a stipulation that no PI animals are present in the herd, with the exception of those recently born and within seven weeks of the first test.
(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – Odile Evans – 30/11/2015)
Compulsory BVD Programme In NI To Start In March
The compulsory phase of the BVD eradication programme will be introduced on 1 March 2016, Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill has announced
Draft legislation will be brought before the Agriculture and Rural Development(ARD) committee next Tuesday (8 December) to make it compulsory for farmers to test new born calves for the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) virus.
All new born calves will require tissue tagging from 1 March 2016 under the legislation in N. Ireland
Making the announcement on Monday, Minister O’Neill said that legislation was coming forward with “a view to it coming into operation on 1 March 2016.”
A voluntary scheme was set up by the Animal Health and Welfare NI (AHWNI) in January 2013, approximately 4,500 of the 18,000 cattle herds in NI currently participate in it.
Introduction of the compulsory phase of the scheme has met several delays. The most recent was last month when department officials could not come before the ARD committee to present on the scheme due to problems with the programme’s database.
The legislation will require aborted and stillbirth calves to be tested also and for persistently infected animals only to be sold to an abattoir or knackery.
Minister O’Neill said that the time between today’s announcement and the introduction of the compulsory phase of the scheme in March would allow herd keepers time to use up any standard herd identification tags and also to allow AHWNI to make any necessary operational arrangements.
The minister estimates that the programme will cost the industry £5m over a three year period but estimated that the financial benefits of eradicating BVD would out weight this by ten times.
She said: “We will be taking an important step towards eradicating BVD from the herd in the north. That would certainly be a considerable achievement and will bring BVD compulsory testing here in line with the rest of Ireland.”
Minister O’Neill added that this will be the first time that AWHNI will implement legislation relating to a production disease.
(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – Peter Mc Cann – 30/11/2015)