Figures presented by Animal Health Ireland (AHI) show that of the 83,500 breeding herds in the country, 143 continue to retain PI animals on farms.

Speaking at the AHI CellCheck awards ceremony on Thursday night, Martin Blake, chief veterinary officer, told over 500 farmers in attendance that forcing farmers to remove these animals was a complex proposition. Blake cited social and economical challenges as barriers to going down such a route.

Tissue tagging

Meanwhile, although accepting that tissue tag testing would have to remain in place throughout 2017, AHI CEO Joe O’Flaherty maintained that the BVD eradication scheme had been a huge success and that it was still possible to eradicate the disease from the national herd.

However, he did accept that AHI had not taken full account of the difficulties in getting farmers to remove PI animals from their herds.

According to O’Flaherty, the real focus now is on limiting the number of PI animals born into the national herd in 2018. The dye is already cast for the 2017 herd.

Discussion continues between the BVD Implementation Group and the Department of Agriculture, aimed at agreeing a series of measures designed to ensure the 2018 PI calf crop is minimised, if not eliminated.

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BVD tissue tagging to continue