The Dealer hears that six pig farmers have entered mediation in a long-running legal case linked to a pneumonia vaccine – M.hyoparasuis suvaxyn pcv 2 – that they claim was defective. On Tuesday, the High Court was told that liability was not being contested by the defendants, Agrihealth and Monaghan Veterinary Laboratory.

The farmers listed in the case were James Nyhan from Cork; Eamonn Phelan from Carrick-on-Suir, Billy Costello of Future Pigs in Nurney, Co Kildare; Tipperary’s David and Jack Ronan, and Tom Hogan and Mairead O’Brien, both from Mitchelstown.

The six cases had been listed for hearing for two weeks from Tuesday, but were adjourned for discussion between the parties. Expert witnesses lined up for the farmers included Ciaran Carroll, head of pigs with Teagasc, and Professor Patrick Wall of UCD.

The court was told yesterday that the Nyhan, O’Brien and Hogan cases have been settled. Discussions on the other cases are continuing. Monaghan-based Agrihealth, formed in 1969, is a well-known provider of animal health products and equipment to trade customers in the Republic of Ireland.