Animal Health Ireland report that they should easily meet their initial target of 1,000 farmers enrolled in the new Johne's control programme. Over 1,200 farmers have initially registered and must now complete final enrolment forms. The first 1,000 farmers to be registered and enrolled will have their vet completed farm risk assessment and disease control plan, which costs €200, paid for by the Department. Several co-ops are also sponsoring their suppliers €100 per farm to help cover the cost of testing animals. The scheme is still open to all applicants and AHI hope it will be possible to secure more funding for those not in the first 1,000 applications. They also encourage people who have expressed interest and not sent back enrolment forms to do so as soon as possible.

The programme will consist of an investigation into current Johnes disease status and a control or biosecurity programme implemented based on this. Farmers can screen for disease through individual milk, blood or faecal sampling. All animals over two years of age must be tested and the current lifespan of the programme is to the end of 2014. AHI are delighted with the initial uptake from farmers and hope that more farmers will register interest.