Campaign to control BVD and sheep scab
A 15-month campaign will kick off next month with the aim to combat bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) and sheep scab.
The campaign, which is costing £567,000, is being spearheaded by EBLEX and DairyCo. It will start next month with a series of train the trainer events for vets and briefings for other livestock advisers.
Vets will subsequently work with farmers on local disease-control programmes and discuss how appropriate control strategies, including diagnostics and treatments, could be implemented to benefit all farmers in a specific area.
Clive Brown, EBLEX northern senior regional manager, said: “This is a great opportunity to tackle both of these diseases, which have a debilitating effect on not only the livestock themselves, but the overall profitability of the industry.
“We want to work with vets across England to help make this campaign as successful as possible and will be working closely with ADAS to deliver the project on sheep scab and XLVets on the BVD side. The ultimate aim of this collaborative approach is to promote positive changes to on-farm practices in how we tackle BVD and scab.”
Ray Keatinge, DairyCo head of research and development, said: “A number of local and regional BVD control initiatives have already been taking place in England. The aim of this project is to draw from existing and previous work to provide more national coverage.”
ADAS will deliver the sheep scab part of the project while XLVets will take the lead on BVD.
The funding for the project came via a successful bid by AHDB under the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Skills and Knowledge Transfer Framework, which is jointly funded by DEFRA and the European Union.
The diseases have been identified as industry priorities by the Cattle and Sheep Health and Welfare Groups (CHAWG and SHAWG), with estimates suggesting that BVD costs the UK beef and dairy industries around £40m a year, while the cost of scab to the British sheep industry is £8.3m.
Find out more about the campaign and associated events from Isabel McShane at ADAS on 01432 820 444 or Sophie Throup at XLVets on 07854 063 384.
Find out how tag and testing can help eradicate BVD