Irish BVD eradication plan see some success
Ireland’s bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) eradication programme is making good progress with persistently infected (PI) animals being largely stripped out of the system.
David Graham, deputy chief executive officer at Animal Health Ireland, reported at an open day held by Ireland’s agriculture and food development authority Teagasc, that so far in 2014, 6,800 calves tested positive, down from 14,000 in 2013. That’s 7,200 fewer infected animals.
At the beginning of June 2014 there were 3,085 PIs alive compared with 5,459 at the same time last year, but more than half of these were retained across 1,734 herds.
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Dr Graham stressed there is no point in keeping PI calves: “Most will not thrive or won’t survive to finish weights and a single PI in the herd can lead to multiple PIs.”
Prompt removal of PI calves is key to avoiding more being born next year.
Farmers with spring calving herds should act now to remove PI animals from their herd, before the risk of exposure to the disease in early pregnancy (about June-October), he added.
Ireland has seen 7,200 fewer calves infected with bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) so far in 2014 compared with the same period last year.