28 SEPTEMBER 2018
ICSA Animal Health & Welfare chair Hugh Farrell has called for the BVD Eradication Programme to be wound up as quickly as possible and said that efforts need to be intensified in order to achieve that. “We are now in the sixth year of what was sold to us as a three year programme. It’s costing farmers upwards of €6m a year, which isn’t something that can be sustained any longer. Farmers are getting very frustrated that there is no end in sight.”
Continuing Mr Farrell said “The key to the programme has always been to identify and remove PI cattle from the national herd. Yet, there remains a significant number of cattle with an ‘unknown’ status which needs to be addressed. In addition, adequate levels of compensation for beef calves must be forthcoming for the swift removal of PI calves to be guaranteed. ICSA believes that €400 per beef calf should be provided for and that AHI and the sector must push harder to get to the end point.”
“The Department have recently established a TB forum, with the aim of eradicating TB by 2030. ICSA is keen to hear proposals in relation to that, however, confidence in that programme can only be measured against the success of previous programmes. The overrun of the BVD programme, at such a significant cost to farmers, is cause for real concern.”
ENDS
